


Written in Stone (Or a book, I guess)

by Anonymous



Series: Kira's Anon Mcyt Fics *sobbing* [1]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Dream Team SMP Spoilers, Kinda, POV Multiple, POV Third Person Limited, Post-Manberg-Pogtopia War on Dream Team SMP (Video Blogging RPF), Realistic Minecraft, also why are bad and skeppy's character tags their names, but not, dream tommy friendship, he needs a hug, i feel weird writing minecraft youtube fanfic but the brainrot won, limited respawn, magic item, mostly tommy tho, no beta we die like wilbur, not pog, only for some of it tho this goes off alot, the line shows when it's someone else
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:47:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 47,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28022649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: "He doesn't trust you. No matter how much you care about him. I'm just trying to look out for you.""No offense, big man, but you don't exactly have the best track record when it comes to 'looking out for me'. I seem to recall the opposite, in fact.""What if I could prove it?"~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~A book falls from the sky one day, landing in the hands of a very loud and confused blonde teen.A quick look through it and a visit from a certain masked man later, Tommy is left questioning something he never thought would be up for debate.Dream said he can prove that Tubbo doesn't trust him, something that sticks with him way more than the conversation he'd had with the appearantly magical book that was now suddenly in his possesion.~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~A book with the appearant ability to tell the future finds it's way into Tommy's hands, something he can't fully enjoy now that he's been shown that his best friend might not actually care about him anymore after becoming president.Switched sides, exile, and broken morals follow as a boy figures out what's right and how to handle the lot he's been given.Canon rewrite and Au thingy starting before Gogy house stuff
Relationships: Alexis | Quackity & TommyInnit, Clay | Dream & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Dave | Technoblade & TommyInnit, Floris | Fundy & TommyInnit, GeorgeNotFound & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), No Romantic Relationship(s), Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, TommyInnit & Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF)
Series: Kira's Anon Mcyt Fics *sobbing* [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2199756
Comments: 178
Kudos: 470
Collections: Anonymous





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi ok so [HOPEFULLY] this is anonymous. I've only ever written for another fandom before this and there's enough crossover that I'm worried that someone might notice but at the same time idk who reads mcyt fics while also reading that other fandom.
> 
> This has more swearing than I'm used to writing [minus one fic but that was about possession so it was waranted] but writing Tommy without him saying the fuck word every five second just feels like a sin so it's unnavoidable.
> 
> Also not gonna beta read cause I'm just using this as a ridiculous and chaotic outlet
> 
> Hopefully you enjoy u wu

Walking down the prime path with his hands in his pockets, Tommy contemplated what he was going to do for the day.

Tubbo was busy dealing with L'Manberg stuff, Quackity and Fundy helping out with that. Phil wasn't busy from what he knew, but at the same time he felt hesitant when it came to interacting with him given the whole ' _stabbed Wilbur and spending time with Techno_ ' thing.

Ranboo was a fairly new name being thrown around, only conversation they'd had so far was him begrudgingly learning that he was still the youngest in the smp, maybe he could go hang out with him?

Tommy's train of thought was interupted by the sudden appearance of a book, seemingly out of absolutely nowhere, falling from the sky and hitting him squarely in the face. He fell backwards in shock, bringing a hand to his face as he looked around and tried to figure out what just happened.

"What the fuck, man?! Who the fuck just did that?!!"

He made sure his nose wasn't broken (wasn't bleeding, probably fine) before leaning foreward and checking out what exactly had hit him.

Laying on the path in from of him was a fairly thick, medium sized, leather-bound book without a title on the outside of it.

"The hell man? Why the fuck did someone throw a book at me?"

He was about to stand, before the book suddenly openned on it's own. He immediately fell backwards again, scarmbling to collect himself. Tommy watched as the book rapidly flipped itself to a page near the middle of itself, words materializing on the page as he looked at it.

" _Hello._ "

"W-What the fuck?!"

" _I can explain, however it is not safe to discuss in the open. Collect me and return to your house._ "

"The fuck kind of prank is this?!", Tommy said as he carefully lifted the book with one hand, now on his feet again, "What kind of enchantments even let you do this?"

" _Again, I can explain, but not here._ "

He ignored the book again, turning it over in his hands as he tried to figure out what was going on, "Oi, dickhead, which one of you is doing this, huh?"

The book made a few more attempts to tell him what was going on before just giving up slamming closed on his hand.

"Ow, what the fuck?!" He pried the book off, letting it fall to the ground and glaring at it.

It quickly openned up to the same page it'd been on before, " _My apologies, you weren't listening and this is extremely time sensitive. No one can see you with me yet and there are other characters fast approaching._ "

"What do you mean 'Characters'?", Tommy asked, now actually paying attention to the book as he picked it up again.

" _The other characters in your story._ "

Now he was interested. "What are you on about?"

" _As I said, I'll explain once you've returned to your home. Place me in your bag, the fox will be in your line of sight in about five minutes._ "

"The fox? You mean Fundy?"

" _Yes, he must not see me._ "

  
Being the agitator that he was, Tommy was tempted to just ignore the book and keep trying to get information from it then and there.

But there was also a voice in the back of his head telling him that for now it was best to wait and see what would happen. So, slipping the book into his inventory, Tommy continued his walk at a slightly faster pace than before.

He quickly got lost in his thoughts, zoning out as he tried to figure out what exactly could be up with the strange object in his bag. He was studdenly brought back to his surrounding with the placement of a hand on his arm. Jumping to the side with an incredibly manly shriek, he quickly turned to see Fundy looking at him in concern.

"You good man? I was calling your name for like, a whole minute."

He shrugged Fundy's hand off, righting himself from the defensive position he'd instinctively been in, "Yeah, just thinking about some shit."

"Wow, that must be a first,", Fundy laughed a bit, nervously tapering it off when he noticed that Tommy wasn't joining in, "What happened to your face? It's all red."

"Oh yeah, some bastard threw a rock or something at me."

"What were you doing to deserve it?"

"Nothing! I was just fucking walking, man!"

"Uh huh, sure you were. Well, whatever, as long as you don't get caught I don't give a shit. See ya,", the fox turned and waved over his shoulder, continuing on his way.

Tommy glared at him for a moment before finishing the walk back to his home. He went into his little make-shift bedroom, getting ready to pull out the book and start interrogating before his eyes settled on the railway that lead to his little vacation home. He thought for a moment before sighing and getting out a minecart.

The book had said no one can see him with it, and his main house was far from secluded; especially with that bastard Connor hanging about, trying to say it was _his_ house and shit.

So, a few minutes later, Tommy was securely alone in his little vacation home. He sat down and pulled the book out, ready to get to the bottom of this shit.

"Alright, spill it. How the fuck did you know I was gonna bump into Fundy?", Tommy asked the book.

It flipped open to the same spot as before, words once again just appearing on the page, " _Going out here was a good move, had you remained at your other home the fox and the bee would have appeared to check in on you._ "

"But earlier you just told me to go home, why the fuck are you saying 'oh, good job!' at me not doing what you said?"

" _Your actions changed what was going to occur. Had you not interacted with the fox he would have left you alone for the remainder of the day._ "

"But you said I was going to see him! Which, hey you tree made son of a bitch, you still haven't explained!"

The book didn't respond for a moment, agitating him even more.

"What? Don't got anything to say?"

" _Have you ever thought of yourself as the hero?_ "

His stomach dropped as he remembered Technoblade's words to him on the sixteenth. He nervously adjusted as he sat there. "The fuck is that supposed to mean?"

" _Have you ever looked at something wrong and decided to do something about it?_ "

"I mean, yeah, but that's because I'm a good person, not because I'm a 'hero'."

" _But it's the makings of one._ "

He read what was on the page, narrowing his eyes. "What're you getting at with this?"

The book paused again before writing, " _What's the most common way to access a story?_ "

Tommy threw his hands up in frustration and let out a groan, "Fucks sake, man! Pick a topic and stick to it! God, you're just as bad as Big Q with that adhd shit!"

" _Earlier you asked how I knew you would see the fox. What's the most common way to access a story?_ "

"I don't fucking know, a book? Go pay a homeless man to tell me about him losing his yeezys or some shit?"

" _Your first statement was the answer I was looking for, although paying the duck to discuss his lost shoes would be entertaining. How does the plot move, in a book?_ "

"These animal things are getting fucking weird, man,", he stopped for a moment, thinking about the new question being presented to him, "But, I don't know, I guess the main character doing shit?"

" _Correct. Would you agree that the main character is the hero of a story?_ "

"I mean...", Tommy paused, thinking, "Not always. I can think of a few where the 'hero' it the one that's fucking everything up."

" _Yes, but everyone is the hero of their own story._ "

_Let's be the bad guys._

"Yeah, not everyone, but I can see where you're trying to get with this. Am I the 'main character' you're trying to hint at?"

" _You could be._ "

"Make up your fucking mind, man! Am I or am I not?!"

" _You could be._ "

  
Tommy growled in frustration, "Enough of this shit! You're so fucking close to just being thrown into the fucking ocean or burned or something!"

" _It's a choice. Do you want to be the main character?_ "

"I don't even know what the fuck that means! You're being all cryptic and shit, I'm just trying to keep up."

" _Life is a story. I am the book that tells that story. You asked earlier how I knew the fox was approaching, it was part of the story. Your actions and interactions decide what occurs with other characters._ "

"So that shit would have happened even if you didn't fall from the fucking sky at me?"

" _Yes._ "

"Then what the fuck do you do?"

The book paused again.

"Well? Why the fuck do you matter if everything is gonna happen anyways?"

" _Look at a story like a tree. The tree's full height could be considered the best ending; the ultimate goal. As the story is being told, it's branches and leaves growing out. Every action by the main character is a branch they can climb, the stronger the action the stronger the branch. A few can break in the climb but ultimately you need as many strong branches as possible to reach the top. The ending will ultimately be the point where the main character can't climb any further, the best place for this being the top with the best view._ "

Tommy re-read that paragraph a few times, trying to figure out what the book was on about. "I'll be honest, you lost me at the first mention of a tree."

The book paused again, something that Tommy was beginning to think was a sign that it was thinking. " _You only have one life remaining, correct?_ "

"Wow, thanks for reminding me, dickhead."

" _You losing that life would be an ending to your story, a very likely one given how easilly it could happen. If the best ending to your story is set later in your life, you dying now would still be an ending wouldn't it?_ "

"That sounds like a fucking threat."

" _It's an example. If the best ending to your story took place in two years time, and you died next week, that would be an ending. But it wouldn't be the ending you would likely want to get to._ "

"I guess? I'm still really confused by all this." 

" _You asked what I do, earlier. I show the main character what's to come, making it easier for you to reach your best ending. Do you want to be the main character of this story, make it yours?_ "

Tommy looked down at the words on the page, thinking. After a few minutes, he spoke up, "There's something else to this, surely. What are you not telling me?"

" _Observant. This choice will definately lead to conflict where there originally was none. That's the risk of grabbing a story by the reigns and pulling it where you want. You will likely die a few times, however it's necessary to reach your best end._ "

"Yeah, I'm gonna stop you there. Not sure if you remember or not considering you've already brought it up once, but I only have one life left. I die anymore and I'm fucking gone."

" _Now, yes, but there's perks to this deal._ "

That was something that really grabbed him. "Perks? The fuck do you mean by that?"

" _I'm going to start this by saying that it will not make you an admin. When a player becomes an admin to a server, they receive what's referred to as 'admin hearts'. The lives they've lost to that point get restored, and doubled._ "

"Wait _what_?!"

" _That is why the chameleon has been able to die four times since the server has begun._ "

The gears in Tommy's head began turning as he tried to think of who the book was referring to. "Are you talking about Dream?"

" _Yes._ "

He tried to remember every time he'd seen Dream die. He didn't exactly remember them all, but it'd definately been more than three.

Once the book figured Tommy had come to that realization, it continued, " _If you become the main character, you get admin hearts. You will have six total lives to use, and once your story has completed you will keep whatever hearts you have left._ "

Tommy's eye's widened as he read that a few times, making sure he was really seeing it. "Are you serious?!"

" _Yes._ "

"And I just have to worry about fighting and shit?"

" _Essentially, yes._ "

Tommy let out a small laugh, "Holy shit, that's so cool! Sounds like some deal with the devil type shit, but otherwise hell yeah! Everyone here fights all the time anyways, not too much of a change!"

" _So, do you want to be the main character?_ "

"Hell yeah!" 

The book closed itself, sitting on it's spine for a moment before openning again, " _Wonderful! Place your palm and wrist inside so that your hand sticks out just up to your fingers._ "

Tommy tilted his head, confused by the instructions given to him. He did what he was told, sitting at an awkward angle as he put his left arm into the book, "Like this?"

Without warning, the book slammed closed onto his arm, his wrist feeling like something was biting him.

"Oww!! Hey what the fuck?!!", he tried to pull back, the book lifting up with his arm as he was sitting up again.

After another mildly uncomfortable and painful moment, the book let go and fell to the floor. He watched as a bit of his blood soaked into the page, looking at what he expected to be an open wound on his wrist. Instead, there was something that looked almost like a tattoo; a mark in a shape that almost resembled a dog bite, the same dull shade of blackish-red that the writing in the book appeared to be.

" _Sorry for not warning you of the binding method, I was worried you would change your mind,_ ", appeared on the page once he was done checking out his wrist.

"You just _bit_ me!"

" _Yes, but now you are officially the main character of this story._ "

"Ok, cool, but how the fuck did you _bite_ me?!"

" _You are about to recieve a call on your comm unit from the bee._ "

Tommy looked down at the page before raising his wrist to look at the small watch sitting there, "This doesn't change the fact that you somehow grew fucking teeth and-"

He was cut off by a call from Tubbo. He looked at his comm, then back at the book before sighing and answering the call.

"Hey, Tubbo! What's up m-"

" _Tommy!_ ", Tubbo interupted him from the other side of the call, and he did not sound happy, " _Did steal something from Dream?_ "

"No? I haven't actually done anything today aside from take a walk."

" _Oh really? Cause Fundy said something about you acting really sus earlier and now Dream's going around asking about something super important being taken while he was out._ "

"Come on, man! It's not always me taking shit! Maybe one of his friends took it trying to fuck with him."

" _It kind of is always you, though,_ ", Tubbo sighed, sounding a bit calmer, " _Where are you right now?_ "

"At my vacation home, why?"

There was a bit of conversation on the other side that Tommy couldn't quite hear before Tubbo sighed again. " _Yeah, ok. Tommy, stay there so Dream can come ask you about it._ "

Tommy rolled his eyes, not that Tubbo could see it, "Yeah, whatever. It actually wasn't me."

" _Sure it wasn't. I've got stuff to deal with, if you have whatever he's looking for just give it back so it doesn't cause any problems, ok? Please?_ "

"Yeah, if I have it. But I'm telling you I don't."

There was another sigh from across the line before Tubbo hung up, not even saying goodbye.

Tommy looked down at the book again, his mood slightly soured by the fact that Tubbo couldn't just take his word for it.

" _The chameleon will be at the door by the time you finish the call,_ ", had appeared on the page since he last looked at it.

Sure enough, there was a knock at his door almost immediately after he'd read it.

"Yeah, yeah, just a minute!", he yelled in the general direction of the door, standing and shoving the book under the edge of the bed before going to talk to the green bastard now outside.

Dream was standing at the door with his arms folded, mask covering everything but his mouth, said mouth drawn in a frustrated grimace.

"I didn't take your shit,", Tommy said almost as soon as the door was open.

Dream's tone was calm, "I didn't say you did."

"That's not was Tubbo was saying. He was all like ' _you better give him his shit back, Tommy. I know it was you it's always you just give it back_ ',", he used a highpitched voice to mock Tubbo, scoffing angrilly, "It is not ' _always me_ '! Everyone on this server steals shit, that's basically how the economy works at this point. I bet-"

He was cut off by the book suddenly openning and slamming itself closed a few times behind him, now a few feet away from where he'd put it.

"You _did_ take it!", Dream shoved past him, going over to the book, "How the hell did you even get to it?!"

Tommy turned around in anger as Dream picked the book up, "I did _not_ steal that fucking book! It literally fell from the fucking sky at me and started talking and shit!"

Dream seemed to freeze when Tommy said that. "Wait, you can read it?"

"Hey, what the fuck are you trying to imply?! Y'know believe it or not I actually have been to school, I know how to read."

"No, but you can read what's written in the book?"

"It's a book, Dream. Written in the Queen's english. Again, really not liking the fact that you seem surprised that I know how to read." 

The book flipped itself to the page after the deal and wrote something that Tommy couldn't see from the angle Dream was holding it at.

He was about to peek over the older man's shoulder before Dream very quickly turned around and pointed to the page, "Prove it. Tell me what this says."

Tommy went to grab the book, but Dream pulled it out of his reach.

"No, just read it. You don't need to hold it to do that."

"Alright, dickhead,", Tommy snapped at him before turning his attention to the book, "It says: ' _The chick is able to_ '- Hey, why does he get to be a fucking chameleon and I'm a fucking chick?! I'm a man at least make me a co- Actually y'know what forget chickens, make me a wolf, bitch!"

The books responded with, " _A chick is something of growth, a wolf is a danger._ "

"Oh come on, man! Call me a puppy then or something! Just not a _chick_!"

" _I don't decide the names. A chick can grow into a cockatrice just as a pup grows into a wolf._ "

Tommy laughed a bit, "The hell is a cockatrice? Sounds a bit lewd if you ask me."

" _I could draw a picture, if you like._ "

Tommy let out a gasp, reaching for the book again, "You can _draw_ shit?!"

It was then that Tommy remembered the other man in the room with him, when Dream let go of the book with one hand and grabbed his left arm.

"Hey, hands off!", he began squiring to try getting away, but Dream's grip was too tight for him to do anything.

"How did I not see that when you openned the door?!", Dream exclaimed as he examined the marking on the boy's wrist.

"Let me go you green son of a bitch before I kick your ass! I got six lives to burn, bitch! Fucking try me!"

"You seriously-,", Dream cut himself off with a sigh, "No, I guess this makes sense."

He let go, and Tommy quickly scampered back, getting a sword out, "Yeah, that's right bitch! Better back the fuck off!"

"You obviously haven't talked about the common sense stuff that goes with this."

"The fuck is that supposed to mean?! I have so much common sense, enough that it's rare, bitch!"

"No, I mean,", Dream paused, taking a glove off to reveal a similar mark on his own wrist, "You obviously haven't gone over the fact that you don't just _advertise_ your extra lives. Did you even get told about book hunters?"

Tommy didn't process that last bit, instead he was more focussed on the similar mark that Dream had on him, "Holy shit, wait. I though you had six lives cause you were an admin."

"I did. The book gave me twelve."

"Wh- What the fuck?! Twelve lives?!! The fuck kind of shit do you even have to get up to where that's even remotely needed?"

"Considering the fact that I've lost _four_ since I started the server, I'd say it's reasonable."

"Why couldn't it give me twelve?"

Dream brought his now uncovered hand to his face, "Because you only had three. Look, the book can go over this with you. I had something else I wanted to talk to you about today."

Tommy raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah? And what might that be?"

"It's about you and Tubbo,", Dream began as he handed the book back to Tommy, "I don't think it's a good idea for you to keep following him like you do."

"The fuck is that supposed to mean?!"

"He doesn't trust you. No matter how much you care about him. I'm just trying to look out for you."

Tommy was starting to get angry at the mere implication that Tubbo didn't trust him, "No offense, big man, but you don't exactly have the best track record when it comes to ' _looking out for me_ '. I seem to recall the opposite, in fact."

"What if I could prove it?"

"How would you prove it? Cause I reckon I could just walk up to him and be like ' _Tubbo do you trust me?_ ' and he'd be like ' _of course, Tommy! I like bees and shit!_ ' and this issue that doesn't even exist would be sorted."

Dream sighed as he waked past, putting his glove back on as he went back to the door, "Like I said, I'm just bringing it up to try to look out for you."

"Alright, you green fucking prick, give me one example of Tubbo not trusting me."

"Earlier, when you told him you didn't steal from me. You actually _didn't_ for once and he didn't believe you."

"Yeah ok well-"

"I'm not saying you have to be on 'my side' here or whatever, but I'm saying that in my opinion it'd be better to separate from him and go do your own thing."

"What if my ' _thing'_ is with Tubbo?"

Dream extended his hand out to him, "Let me make a deal with you. Tomorrow morning we meet up in the community house with Gerorge and Sapnap and I tell you my plan to prove that Tubbo doesn't trust you. Deal?"

Tommy eyed the hand cautiously before accepting it, "Alright, and when we prove that Tubbo aboslutely, one-hundred percent _does_ trust me, I get my disc back. You get it from Skeppy and hand it to me in front of everyone in L'Manberg."

"Deal. See you tommorrow."

Tommy watched Dream walk away for a moment before closing his door and sitting down on his bed. He openned up the book again, sighing at what he assumed was going to be more reading, "Alright, lay it on me; What the fuck was he talking about?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Comm Units" in the story reffer to what's essentially discord and in-game chat. It looks like an apple watch kinda, and they wear it on their wrists.

The next day, Tommy groggily walked to the community house wearing a new, black undershirt that ended in what was essentially fingerless gloves; per the reccomendation of the book.

He'd been up a bit too late the night previous reading over everything the book felt he needed to know right away; shit like not just _telling_ someone about your lives, finding creative ways to hide the book so it wasn't ovbious, only main characters or ' _potential_ ' (either it wasn't explained to him or he wasn't paying attention at that point) main characters can read what the book says, ect.

Really basic things that in hindsight made a bit too much sense to need to be explained, but Tommy refused to admit that and just pretended he already knew all of it in the first place. Being up that early was already starting to wear on him, and he was thankful he could use the book to avoid any unnecissary human interaction before his meeting with Dream.

Tommy entered the community house with an obnoxious yawn, making it clear from the beginning that he wasn't happy about having to wake up early.

George scoffed at him, rolling his eyes, "About time."

Tommy walked over to where Dream, George, and Sapnap were in the corner, crossing his arms, "Not my fault I was told to show up in the morning, it's too early man!"

Dream let out a little wheezy laugh. "It's like eleven! What do you mean it's ' _too early_ '?!"

"A man needs his sleep, Dream!" That comment got the entire Dream Team laughing, making Tommy stomp his foot angrilly, "Alright, whatever! Tell me what your stupid ass plan is so I can show you how wrong you are."

  
Dream had to take a moment to catch his breath after laughing, walking over to Tommy and holding up his wrist, "Alright, but first I wanted to show you a few things with the comm unit."

Tommy raised an eyebrow at him, "Oh yeah? And what would that be?"

"Hold up your arm."

Still skeptical, and mildly cautious, Tommy lifted his arm with the comm unit on.

Dream pulled up his saved coordinates on his own comm, selecting one before he started talking, "Ok, so I just pulled up to coords to George's cottage, right?"

"I guess? I can't exactly see your screen y'know."

"Alright, well I did. Watch this."

Dream tapped his comm against Tommy's, causing both of the devices to make a little _beep_ noise.

"Holy shit! How the fuck did you do that?!", Tommy asked, looking at the little message on his screen indicating that he had a new location saved.

Dream laughed a bit at his reaction, " _That's_ just a normal feature that they have, most people just don't know about it. The other thing is more of a glitch. Has anyone ever shown you call scumming before?"

Tommy furrowed his brows in confusuion. "' _Call scumming'_? The fuck is that?"

"Told you!", Sapnap called from the corner.

Dream rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever,", he turned to face Sapnap and George, "Join one of the vcs so I can show him."

Once they joined, Dream moved so that Tommy could see his comm. "Ok, watch this." He tapped the screen, sliding his finger around a bit before releasing the 'join call' prompt. After he did it, it showed the call like he was in it, however without it _saying_ he was in it.

" _That_ is call scumming. I'm in the same vc as them and can hear everything from the call, but they can't see that I'm in it and I'd have to rejoin if I wanted to talk. That's how you catch it if someone call scums; it still makes the noise for someone joining or leaving but it doesn't say anyone is there,", Dream paused to see the look of excitement on Tommy's face, "This is why it's better to talk about important things in private calls."

That statement made something click with Tommy, his excitement turning into realization, "That's how you assholes knew all our plans!"

Dream laughed, "Guilty as charged. Honestly we thought at least one person on you guy's side knew about it."

Tommy was starting to get impatient, "Alright, that's cool, genuinely thanks for showing me, but what does this have to do with showing that Tubbo doesn't trust me?"

"Oh, you're gonna go mess with George's gay little twink cottage."

"Stop calling it that!", George huffed from the corner, causing everyone else in the room to laugh.

It took a few minutes for Tommy to calm down enough to speak, "But seriously though, what kind of plan do you have?"

"That's actually the plan. You go and grief it a bit, I pretend to be upset, and we see how Tubbo reacts. Just don't like, blow the whole thing up or something. Make it noticable but easy enough to fix that it looks like I'm overreacting,", Dream said, a confident tone to his voice.

Tommy looked skeptical, "And how exactly, are you going to 'overreact' to it?"

"You'll see. Just act like it wasn't planned, and if he trusts you he'll take your side without any issue. You get your disc from me, and you know he's got your back,", he extended his hand, similarly to the evening before, "Sound good to you?"

Tommy didn't hesitate this time, a cocky smile on his face, "Yeah, sounds like a plan. Can't wait to have my shit back where it belongs."

"Probably better to ask the book for help with this, make sure it goes through the best set of story branches."

Tommy froze when Dream said that, nervously glancing behind him at George and Sapnap before looking back at Dream.

The man let go of his hand, "Oh, they know about it don't worry. They can't read it but they knew I had it."

"Isn't one of the main fucking rules not letting other people know you have it?"

"Well they're not really _rules_ , just a baseline so you stay safe with it. What matters is that the right people know you have it."

"How do I know who the ' _right_ ' people are?"

"The book should tell you when someone needs to know about it."

"Who _already_ knows about it?"

Dream brought a hand to his chin, thinking, "Everyone here, obviously, uh... Bad does, but he can also sense it so he should know you have it next time you see him without having to tell him. That's it off the top of my head, I didn't really go around broadcasting it."

Tommy set a hand on the bag holding the book, contemplating. After a moment of just thinking, he suddenly turned on his heel and started walking toward one of the doors, "Alright, well, guess I'll go figure out how I'm dealing with messing up the cottage. Probably burglary or some shit, who knows."

He could hear Dream and Sapnap laughing, as well as George standing up behind him, "Don't take my stuff!"

He just smiled to himself as he exited, excited by the idea of having both his discs by the end of the week. He looked down at his comm unit, seeing Ranboo in one of the vcs and immediately disregarding the advice to consult the book for a plan as he joined the call. "Hey, Ranboo! Where you at?"

~-~-~

Tommy sat in his house, looking foreward at the wall. He was tucked away on the corner of his little bedroom, just contemplating how the day had gone.

Dream said he would overreact but he _really_ wasn't kidding. The asshole had gone and put up some ugly as hell obsidion walls all around L'Manberg, and then even after they'd reached an agreement with George on a punishment (probabtion, whatever the fuck that meant), he demanded that Tubbo either exile Tommy or hand over the disc he has.

And Tubbo was _considering_ it!

Tommy was trying his best not to think about it, trying to focus on literally anything else but instead just continually getting stuck on how Tubbo had acted toward him through the whole thing. The cell, _actually dropping him in lava_ , the entire fucking cabinet being against him.

Even after he'd admitted to it and brought up the fact that his house is constantly getting destroyed and he could have done far worse, no one cared.

Dream had sent him a message saying to meet in the community house again later that night, but honestly he just wanted to sleep and ignore the world for a while. He decided to check the book, looking over the day's events written in it.

Something he'd found is that the book keeps ' _logs_ ' of different things it deems important to it's story; ' _character_ ' interactions (conversations), actions and what they lead to, stuff that happens when he's not around that he should know about.

He was looking through the logs again when the book suddenly turned itself to a new page.

"Hey, I was reading that!"

It quickly scawled out, " _The fox is coming for your 'probabtion homework'. He will be here in five minutes._ "

Tommy scoffed, "Oh great. Don't know what he expects me to write, he was literally with me all day."

" _If you leave now and hide, you can avoid him for the day. However you will also have to find somewhere that isn't one of your homes to hide until your meeting with the chameleon, since the fox, duck, and bee will be keeping an eye out for you._ "

Tommy rolled his eyes. "Of course they will,", he stood, stretching before he stashed the book away and made a quick escape from his house. 

His goal was to get out of the smp lands, however his speed walking and thoughs were interupted by someone grabbing onto his forearm and causing him to spin around from the momentum. It took him a second to steady himself, readying a glare for whoever had grabbed him.

Phil smiled at him, chucking a bit, "Woah there, where are you off to?"

Tommy's face softened, a smile replacing the annoyed grimace, "Phil! I was just out for a walk."

"Mhm. Does this 'walk' have anything to do with the fact that Fundy is looking for you?"

Tommy's smile fell slightly, and he let out a nervous laugh, "Yeah well... You heard about what happened, right?"

"That you burnt down George's house?"

"I did not burn it down! The roof caught on fire a bit, but we put it out! I was the perfect crime, Phil! Besides, these assholes mess with my shit all the time, Dream literally blew my shit up in front of everyone!"

Phil made a face at him, "Yeah, but you do stuff to provoke them."

That made the rest of Tommy's smile dissapear. He jerked himself to the side, out of Phil's grip before continuing to walk away, "Whatever. Don't tell them you saw me, I don't have shit to write for them today."

"Alright, see you later, then,", Phil said, concerned by the sudden change in attitude.

Tommy didn't answer as he started walking off the path in a random direction he'd picked.

After walking what he deemed a safe distance away, Tommy pulled the book out. "Why didn't you warn me about him before I left?", he asked, anger clear in his voice.

The book took a moment to answer. " _That interaction wasn't set. He doesn't seem like a potential main character, but he is familiar. I am at a loss as to how that happened._ "

"The fuck do you mean you're ' _at a loss_ '? Aren't you supposed to know everything?"

" _Not everything, keep an eye out for him in the future. There's a clearing up ahead, save the coordinates._ "

Tommy looked up, noticing how much darker it was outside now as he took in the area. He'd been walking through the trees for what felt like ages, while he was just thinking about the situation he was in. In front of him, there was a dip in the land that led to a decently sized clearing with two trees in it and a few flowers.

"Why am I saving the location?"

" _Spoilers._ "

Tommy rolled his eyes before doing what the book had told him. That was another thing he learned about the book; it's favorite word was appearantly ' _spoilers_ '. Anything he asked that it couldn't tell him for some reason, just ' _spoilers_ '. He was honestly convinced that the book was just an asshole and like to keep him in the dark on some things for the fun of it.

He looked down at it again once he was done saving the spot as ' _special fucking place, appearantly_ '.

" _It took about an hour to get here at the speed you were going. The chameleon expects to meet up at midnight._ "

Tommy glanced at the time on his comm unit. "Ugh, it's only like eight-twenty!", he looked around before plopping down against a tree with a sigh, "Guess I've got like, three hours to kill. Could you go back to where I was in the logs?"

~-~-~

"Have I made my point, yet?", Dream sat in the corner of the community house, his mask covering his entire face.

Tommy could hear the man's smile without seeing his mouth. "I mean, really can't blame him for reacting like he has. From his perspective I really fucked them over,", Tommy sounded unsure of himself, shifting his weight awkwardly back and forth as he spoke.

"Oh come on! We even fixed the house before he could see what you did and he just took my word for it."

"Because it's something I would do."

"It's something literally _everyone_ on the server does. There's no way he seriously thinks either kicking you out or your disc is a fair trade. I didn't even have to push that hard for him to consider it."

Tommy was shaking with rage, "Shut up! You put him in a shit position! This has nothing to do with whether or not he fucking trusts me!"

Dream laughed at him, not a chuckle or small wheeze but a full blown cackle. "Fine, how about this,", Dream said after finally catching his breath again, "I have another plan, I'll tell you about it in a few days, alright?"

"Why are you so fucking sure about this? Y'know what, actually, even _if_ Tubbo doesn't, and this is entirely an if, even if he doesn't trust me; why do you give a single fuck?"

Dream stood up, coming over to place a hand on Tommy's shoulder, "Like I said, I'm trying to look out for you. Why should you have to listen to someone who doesn't even care about you?"

Tommy jerked backwards out of the man's grip, seething. "He does fucking care! I stay by him because we care about eachother! What gives you the right-?!"

"Hey, quiet down or people are gonna hear you."

"Oh fuck off, you green fucking bastard! You can't go around saying that kind of shit and then just tell me to quiet down!"

Dream raised his hands in a placating gesture, "You're right, sorry. That was taking it too far. But still, just think about it."

Tommy quieted for a moment, just glaring at him. "You'd better actually have a good plan, or I'm gonna just stab the shit out of you."

"Of course. See you later, then?"

Tommy turned, already starting to walk back to his house, "Yeah, whatever."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i feel some type of way about the fact that this has more interaction than most of my other stories, but i guess mcyt is a bit more active than the other one so it shouldn't be too surprising.
> 
> on that note tho thank you to everyone reading and commenting so far, it makes me smile <3 !!!


	3. Chapter 3

The next day started as a mix of unneventful and annoying as hell. He tried to stay in his house so he didn't actually have to write anything, but Fundy stuck around the entire time pestering him.

"The fuck is your problem, man? Do you seriously have nothing better to do? Doesn't your fucking tail need to be brushed or something?", Tommy asked as he tried to sort through his chests.

"Oh, _haha_ ,", Fundy said as he rolled his eyes, "Y'know you're on probabtion and not house arrest, right?"

"Yeah, well I want to stay in my house today."

"Tommy! I have to keep an eye on you, don't make me have to just sit here and watch you sort your shit all day!"

"You do not have to fucking ' _watch me_ '! All you have to do is get a stupid fucking report from me at the end of the day, that's it!"

"Yeah, but if I don't keep an eye on you how do I know you actually wrote down what you did?"

Tommy let out a frustrated groan, dropping what he was holding back into the chest. "Why the fuck do I still need to write shit down when you spent the entire day just hovering over me?"

"Cause it's part of your probation."

Tommy closed the chest he'd been sorting through, turning to look at the fox with his arms crossed. "Alright then, you fucking furry, what do you suggest we do today?"

Fundy put a hand to his face, "I don't know, man! Just something other than sorting your fucking chests."

Tommy glared at him for a moment before going back to sorting his stuff, smiling as he heard Fundy let out an annoyed noise. "If this is so boring to you, go somewhere else. I need to get this shit dealt with."

He busied himself as he heard movement from behind him, "Alright, fine. I'll be back at the end of the day to get your report. Don't go out and cause trouble just cause I'm not watching you, you've done enough shit lately."

"Just get out already!" That last comment had really hit a nerve, completely ruining any semblance of a good mood he'd had left at that point.

Fundy jumped a bit at the sudden change in attitude. He chuckled nervously, "Alright man, calm down."

Tommy didn't say anything in response, and after a moment the fox just left.

Tommy finished sorting his chests (since that _was_ actually something he'd been meaning to do) before retreating to his little bedroom and pulling the book out. "What the fuck was his problem?"

" _He's concerned you'll get into more trouble._ "

Tommy scoffed, rolling his eyes. "No shit. Not like it matters, once that stupid meeting happens I'll be proven right and Dream will have to give me my disc back. I just have to wait a few days." The book didn't say anything for a minute, prompting Tommy to raise an eyebrow at it. "What? No response to that?"

" _Have you considered building a new house?_ "

"The fuck does that have to do with what I said?"

" _You want the fox to leave you alone. Have you considered building a new house?_ "

He scoffed. "I'm not about to run away because some fucking furry doesn't have something better to do outside of loitering inside the house of a minor."

" _It's not running away. It's giving yourself an advantage._ "

"How is building a new house an ' _advantage_ '? I already have like, three, does a fourth one unlock some kinda fucking landlord powers or some shit?", he paused for a second, "Wait, does it?"

" _No. Every character knows the location of your house, currently. A new one provides you with a chance to set up new secrets and advantages._ "

He thought about it for a moment. The book did have a point, basically everyone on the server had fucked with his current house at some point, building a new one somewhere else would get rid of that issue pretty easilly. He was about to ask where to build it, when something clicked in his head, "Wait a fucking second, is that why you told me to save those random coords?"

" _Yes._ "

"I hate the fact that plan this shit and don't tell me about it, y'know that?"

" _Apologies, some information has a time and place._ "

"Whatever. Is Fundy gone or do I have to wait til tonight to get started with that?"

" _The fox is gone. If you go now you should be able to avoid interaction,_ ", it paused for a moment, " _However, I have a suggestion for a detour._ "

"Yeah? What's that?"

" _A horse would make travel easier, and the distance would make it inconvenient for someone to cause harm to it._ "

Tommy scoffed. "You know how annoying it is to go out and tame horses?! I'd be better off just legging it."

" _The pig has several horses remaining in the area by the ravine._ "

"You seriously want me to steal one of _Techno's_ horses? Pretty sure he'd come back just to fucking stab me if I did that."

" _He doesn't care for the ones he left, it won't matter to him if you take one._ "

Tommy thought about it for a moment, nervously swallowing the lump in his throat. "And you're sure of this?"

" _Yes._ "

He sighed, standing up and getting ready to commit grand theft equine. "What's the best route for me to take?"

Three hours and one stolen horse later, Tommy was at the clearing from the night before with an inventory full of cobble and ambition. He dismounted the horse, he couldn't be bothered to tie it up so he really just hoped it didn't wander too far, before beginning an outline for what would soon be his new home.

It was going quite well for a while, before he got a message on his comm from Tubbo telling him to join one of the vcs with him and Fundy.

"Hello!"

" _Hey, Tommy! What are you up to?_ ", Tubbo's voice came through, considerably calmer than the last time they'd spoke.

"Ah, I'm out building shit, man!"

Fundy let out a sigh, " _When'd you leave your house? I didn't even see you!_ "

Tommy laughed a bit, "Might need to get your eyes checked then, Cause I just fucking left out the front."

" _Hey! It's not my fault you were doing some boring shit earlier._ "

" _Oh? What was he doing?_ "

" _He was just sorting through his chests!_ "

"Not my fault you decided to waste your time faffing about my house when I had shit to do."

Tommy and Tubbo both laughed at the obviously annoyed noise that escaped the fox.

" _Fine, whatever. Now that you **aren't** doing some boring shit, where you at?_"

"I told you, I'm building some shit."

" _Ok, but where?_ "

"None of your fucking business."

" _Tommy,_ ", Tubbo started, " _Remember, you're on probation. You have to tell us what you're up to._ "

"Yeah, after I'm done with it,", he looked up at the wall he'd just finished, feeling pretty satisfied with himself, "Last I checked there's still a few hours left before I have to do anything."

" _Jesus chist, stop being so difficult!_ ", Fundy said, sounding frustrated.

"Hey, it's your rules not mine. You'll just have to wait for..." He trailed off, noticing some movement behind a tree.

" _Tommy? Are you ok?_ ", Tubbo asked after he was silent for a few moments, sounding worried.

He didn't answer, instead getting his sword out and slowly stalking toward the area he'd been looking at.

He quickly stepped behind the tree, ready to start stabbing shit but finding it empty. He assumed he was just seeing things, and turned to go back to what he was doing.

Standing directly behind him was Dream, mask pulled up and a shit eating grin on display.

A powerful and totally not high-pitched scream escaped Tommy as he fell backwards onto the ground.

This made Dream quietly start to laugh as Tommy heard Tubbo on his comm. " _Tommy?! Are you alright?!!_ "

Tommy quickly muted himself before standing and trying to look threatening, an action that just made Dream stop for a second before laughing even harder.

"Hey, you fucking asshole! What the hell?!", Tommy said, acting like he didn't just shriek and fall onto his ass.

"Sorry, but that was hilarious!"

"Yeah, go ahead and laugh! At least I don't go sneaking up on people and shit from the fucking trees."

"It's fun, you should try it sometime."

Tommy waited a moment for Dream to catch his breath before crossing his arms and speaking. "So why the fuck were you just hiding in the trees? Actually, better yet, why the fuck are you out here?"

"I should be asking you that,", Dream said before pointing at Tommy's comm unit, "Let them know you didn't die or whatever and leave the vc so we can talk."

"What if I don't _want_ to talk to you?"

"Would you rather talk to them? Fundy was hanging around outside your base for like, two hours before I chased him off."

"Of course I want to talk to them, they're my friends."

"Hey, I'm your friend too!"

"Yeah... you're lower on the list, right now."

Dream put a hand on his chest and let out a little gasp in fake offense. Tommy laughed a bit before rolling his eyes and rejoining the call for a second.

Appearantly, in the short amount of time he'd been talking to Dream, Quackity had joined at some point and the three of them were placing bets on whether or not he was stuck in a hole or something.

Quackity greeted him when he unmuted, " _Eyyy Tommy!_ "

"Hey, big Q!"

" _Tommy!_ ", Fundy said, " _Did you break your legs?_ "

"Wow, thanks dickhead."

" _We were worried about you, you just sorta screamed and went on mute,_ ", Tubbo said.

"Yeah well... Some kind of ugly ass animal came out of the trees and scared the shit out of me,", he had to contain his laughter when Dream let out a real offened gasp at his statement, "Anyways, I gotta go for now. See you guys later."

" _Don't forget your homework!_ ", Fundy added before he got a chance to leave, making the other two participants in the call start laughing.

Tommy looked down at his comm for a bit once he left the call, a bitter feeling in his stomach.

"You ok?", Dream asked, pulling him out of whatever headspace he was beginning to enter.

"What?"

"I asked if you were ok, you've been standing there looking at your comm for a while."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess I'm alright,", Tommy cleared his throat before pushing past Dream and going back to buildng, "What the fuck did you want to talk about?"

Dream looked at him for a moment before speaking, "Why are you out in the middle of nowhere?"

"None of your fucking business."

Across the field, the book slammed itself closed a few times from the spot Tommy had left it under a tree. Dream went over and picked it up, reading a bit before looking back up at Tommy. "You're building a new house?"

"Hey, that book is a fucking snitch! No fair, why don't I get to be mysterious and shit too?"

"Because you're a child."

"Low blow, big man, low blow."

Dream was seemingly having a quiet conversation with the book, so Tommy just rolled his eyes before going back to building. After a few minutes, Dream came back over and leaned on one of the finished walls, looking up at him. "How are you holding up?"

The quesion made Tommy stop for a second. "The fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"It means what I said. A bunch of shit's been happening lately, how are you holding up?"

"A bunch of shit has happened because of you, that's a detail you're forgetting."

Dream sighed, "You wanna know something, Tommy? Remember how I said I was going to talk to you anyways the day you found the book?"

"Yeah? So what?"

"Well, guess who said I _should_ talk to you?"

Tommy glared down at him, "You're not being serious."

"No, I am! The book can tell you all kinds of stuff, it just depends on what you ask it and how. I asked what the next step in the story was, it told me to talk to you at the end of the day,", he paused for a second before bitterly adding, "Not that it told me it was your turn with it, but honestly it makes sense."

"Really? In what way does a magical fucking book make sense?"

"I meant that you being the main character makes sense. Honestly now that it's happened I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner."

Tommy sighed before sitting down on the wall he was in the middle of building, "That almost sounds like a compliment, Dream."

The masked man shrugged. "I guess it kinda is. This isn't exaclty something that happens to just anyone."

"Does the fact that you're sudenly being nice to me have anything to do with the fact that I've somehow taken an incredibly useful thing from you and the only way you can still use it is if I don't fucking hate you?"

Dream laughed a bit before passing the book up to Tommy. "Honestly? That's part of it, not gonna lie. But at the same time, I think it also is actually the fact that you're gonna end up getting mistreated in the long run if someone doesn't step in now."

Tommy grabbed the book and wrinkled his nose. "The fuck does that mean?"

"You and Tubbo are still close right now, but if nothing changes you guys are going to end up in a bad spot that you won't be able to get back from."

"So what, speeding that process up is the best course of action?"

"You can't have a stable house on rotted foundation, best to just tear everything out and start over, y'know?"

Tommy looked down at the book in his hands, thinking about Dream's words. "I still don't trust you, y'know,", he said, quietly, "I still don't believe that there's anything wrong between me and Tubbo."

"Understandable, but you also have to be open to the idea that you're wrong about it."

"I am! I am open to that and I feel like absolute shit over it!", Tommy slammed his fist down next to him, "I'm not just some fucking idiot! I know Tubbo doesn't trust me, but he _cares_ enough about me to not just throw me out like some piece of fucking garbage. He's not even going to consider it, and once he tells you to fuck off I can go about fixing the issues we have."

Dream looked up at him, his expression basically unreadable thanks to that stupid mask, before pushing himself foreward away from the wall. "I hope you're right about it, I really do,", he started walking in the direction of the rest of the smp, "I'm here if you need help with anything, just message me. I'll come to see you before the meeting, just let me know where you're at the day of."

"Yeah, whatever."

He watched Dream walk away, waiting until he was probably out of earshot before turning his attention to the book. "Are you seriously the reason he's doing this?"

The book flipped itself open to a blank page. " _I am only the reason he has decided to act on it. He made the observation on his own a while ago._ "

"How long is a fucking ' _while_ '?"

" _Shortly before the ram died. The duck and bee were discussing who would betray them and declared you 'public enemy number one'. The chameleon saw this transpire, and the combination of this incident and more recent ones he's noticed have led to his conclusion._ "

"I _asked_ Tubbo about the sign thing, though! He said it didn't mean anything."

" _At the time it did._ "

Tommy let out a low growl. "Alright, what the fuck does that mean, then?"

" _Those signs were part of a serious discussion._ "

"Tubbo seriously thought I was going to betray everyone?"

" _Yes,_ ", the book paused for a moment after saying that, " _The fox is heading in this direction, he will arrive in fifteen minutes._ "

"The fuck? How'd he know where I am?!"

" _He heard you scream and decided to head in this direction. He just ran into the chameleon and is continuing onwards, I recommend you be building by the time he arrives._ "

"Yeah, yeah,", Tommy grumbled as he stood again, placing the book back into his inventory, "This conversation isn't over, I'll make sure I bring it up later." 

Sure enough, Fundy eventually made his way into the clearing, fox ears drawn back in confusion. "Tommy? What are you doing out here, it's so far away!"

"I told you earlier, bitch! I'm building shit, leave me alone."

"Yeah, but why are you so far away?"

"I wanted to have a house where I'd be safe from some perverted furry peeking through my fucking windows. Guess that's still gonna be an issue, though."

"Hey! Y'know I'm gonna have to tell Tubbo about this, right?"

Tommy let out a loug sigh, his hands on his face, "Why? Does this break my fucking probation or something?"

Fundy snorted as he messed around with his comm, "Ugly enough to."

"Fuck off, I'm working hard on this!"

"Yeah, but it's all cobblestone. Just like every other thing you build."

"Cobblestone is the best block, alright? Just because you don't have any sense of style doesn't mean you get to bully me."

"It _absolutely_ means I get to bully you,", Fundy started walking over to the bit Tommy was working on, "You need any help?"

"No thanks, it's not that hard of a task. Not sure if you'd noticed, but I'm already almost done with it."

Fundy let out a little hum in response, just standing there watching him for a few minutes and not actually saying anything.

Tommy finished the wall he was working on before turning to look at him, "Can I fucking help you with something?"

"Where's your homework, Tommy?"

Tommy rolled his eyes. "Right, _that_ ,", he jumped down from where he was, using a water bucket to soften the fall, "You have something for me to write it on, then?"

Fundy sighed before pulling out a notebook, "You should have your own by this point, you know you need to write it every day."

Tommy started to ignore what Fundy was saying, tuning him out as he wrote " _Sorted my shit, built a house, continued being a legend, talked to a furry_ " on the second page of it before shoving it directly into the fox's face. "There, now leave me alone."

Fundy grabbed it from him, reading what he'd written. "Is that seriously all you've done today?"

"Oh, my bad, I forgot to write about how I started stabbing shit after this fucking fox wouldn't leave me alone."

Fundy took a step back, hands raised defensively, "My bad. It's your fault for fucking with George's house, though."

Tommy groaned in frustration, "Oh my god, will you just leave already?! You have what you wanted, you don't have any other reason to be hanging around and bugging me while I try to get shit done."

"We're friends, man! Maybe I just want to hang out?"

Tommy turned his back to him, walking over and finishing up the first floor windows on his house, "Yeah, well maybe I just want to be left alone right now. Go hang out with _Tubbo_ or something."

Fundy sent him a concerned glance at the bitter way he said the other boy's name, ears pinned back against his head. "You've been acting strange, lately, you alright?"

"Oh yeah, I'm doing fucking _wonderful_ ,", Tommy retorted, sarcasm dripping from his words, "Not like there's been a bunch of shit happening that I have no fucking control over or anything. Not like my fucking friends actually give a shit, either."

"You did have control over this, though. This is happening because of something you d-"

"Not just this shit!", Tommy spun around to look at him again, anger clear on his face, "Since the Schlatt shit. Since Wil fucking died. Since Technoblade had his fucking withers! All of it, every bit of it is fucked, and I can't do anything about it! Even this fucking shit with Drea-" He stopped talking mid sentece, taking the sudden movement from the book in his pocket as a sign to shut up.

Tommy closed his eyes, taking a deep breath through his nose before turning around to get back to building, "Like I said, just fuck off. I'm not really in the mood to talk right now."

Fundy looked at him, ears still pinned back in concern as he tried to think of what he should do. He stood there like that for a moment before sighing and starting to walk in the direction of the rest of the smp. "Alright, fine, you win. I'll leave. But I'll be there if you want to talk, just give me a call."

"I don't think I will, but thanks."

The rest of the day went by without any other interuptions, and he finished the main structure of his new house. He decorated the inside to the best of his ability, making a little kitchen area and livingroom that looked pretty good in his opinion.

It was done, sans his bed and stuff, but he decided that was something he could do the next day seeing as the sun had already sunk below the horizon. He even went though the trouble of lighting up the surrounding area as he went out to see where the horse he'd stolen from Techno had wandered off to.

Equine re-aquired, he made his way back to his current house so he could get some sleep, trying to think of something to name the animal before settling on "Big Man Elmer" (or just Elmer for short). He made it back to the smp some time around two in the morning, opting to tie the horse up inside and just go to bed, forgetting about the conversation from earlier in the day with the book that he'd been meaning to continue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pogs in the comments for Big Man Elmer
> 
> it's supposed to snow tomorrow and my brain is all gooey, all i can focus on is this *cries*


	4. Chapter 4

Tommy woke up later that morning to people talking directly outside his door in the main area of his house. He groggily sat up and stretched, yawning as he did so. He got up to see what was going on, letting out an annoyed sigh as he watched Connor and Puffy messing around with Elmer inside of his house.

Puffy was the first to notice his emergence from his room, raising a hand in greeting from atop the horse. "Hey, Tommy! Is this your horse?"

"No, it's just some random horse that I decided to tie up inside of my house."

Connor looked at him for a second, then at the ground, then back at him. "Can I have-"

" _Yes_ , it's my horse. Jesus, learn what sarcasm is."

"Where'd he come from?", Puffy asked as she climbed off.

"Aren't you older than me? Do I really need to explain where babies and shit come from to you?"

Connor and Puffy both laughed at that.

"No, I mean where'd _you_ get it from?", she clarified, still laughing.

"Found him."

"Sounds like you meant to say 'stole', Tommy."

Tommy waived his hand in a dismissive way, "Not my fault Techno left a bunch of horses in a hole, alright? Honestly I was saving it if anything."

"Ooo, Technoblade's gonna be so mad at you if he finds out,", Connor laughed as he looked over at the horse again.

Tommy rolled his eyes before starting to collect stuff out of his chests. "Hey, Connor, question for you."

"If you ask if I'm gonna eat some pants I'll kill you."

"Do you still want my house?"

Connor tilted his head a bit, him and Puffy both confused. "Why?"

"I made a new one yesterday, you can keep this one if you want once I get my shit out."

"Ok, but why did you make a new one?"

Tommy closed the chest he'd been digging around in, moving on to the next one, "Fucks sake man, do you want this one or not? I'm trying to be nice here."

"I mean, sure, I'm just confused."

"My reason is none of your business."

"Alright, then. When are you moving out?"

"Today, preferably, just gotta move my stuff over."

"Want any help with that?", Puffy asked.

"Nah, I should be good. I can always force Dream to help me or something if I end up needing it."

Puffy wrinkled her nose at that. "Isn't he like, super mad at you though?"

Tommy stood up straight again, moving toward his steps so he could get down to the rest of his chests. "Oh, yeah, I guess. Could ask Fundy or something, then."

"Ok. I guess we'll talk to you later then, Connor and I were gonna go do some stuff when we saw the horse in here."

"Have fun with that."

Once he was sure they were both gone, Tommy pulled out the book and set it on the floor as he started combing through the stuff in his chests downstairs; regretting the fact that he'd went through the effort of sorting them only to move out almost immediately. "Anything big gonna come from me talking to them?", he asked the book.

It waited a moment before writing, " _Aside from them deciding to not steal your horse, no._ "

He scoffed. "Of course they were gonna steal it, can't have anything good on this server can I?" He went on to silently fill his inventory, stopping again once he hit the chest of stuff that he and Ranboo had stolen from George. Even though he'd been told to do it, he still felt slightly bad about it all things considered. George mostly left garbage in his chests, but a few of the items were actually pretty good.

He thought for a second before looking down at the book again. "Feel like guessing how something would go?"

" _Describe the scenario._ " 

\--------

Fundy was walking down the prime path on his way to his icecream shop when he noticed Tommy going off path and walking in the direction of Church Prime.

He figured that it was a good idea to follow him, thinking he was probably going to get into trouble again if he was left alone. He watched the boy dissapear behind the Church, and waited a moment before carefully stalking over and peeking around the corner.

He saw Tommy there, talking to George.

The boy had a hand on the back of his neck as he spoke, already in the middle of saying something by the time the fox managed to focus in. "-et up, but I also felt bad about the fact that we _did_ actually take your shit. I found the place we'd put it when I was getting shit together to move to my new house and decided it was probably a good idea to give it back."

George looked lightly amused, his arms crossed as he looked down at the chest Tommy had placed the items he'd mentioned in, "Right, but why did you have me meet you here instead of at your old house or something?"

Tommy brought his hands to his face and groaned in a mix of frustration and annoyance, "Because everyone's been hanging about and messing with shit! That's part of the reason I'm moving. This is just a thing between me and you, alright? I don't want anyone from L'manberg knowing about it, this isn't a part of that whole thing."

"But couldn't you work it in as a thing saying I accepted your apology?"

"No, if I do that then they'll think I just did it to keep Tubbo from throwing me out. No way they'd think it's sincere,", Tommy said with a bitter tone that made Fundy flinch back a bit in his hiding spot, "You can tell Dream about it, though, if he wants to bring it up that's on him."

"Right. Well thank you, I guess."

Tommy pulled out an ender pearl, turning so he could throw it back in the direction of his house, causing Fundy to dive behind the wall again so he didn't get spotted. "No problem, like I said sorry about _actually_ robbing you when we did that."

"Don't worry about it, at least you gave it back."

In the span of a few seconds, there was the sound of a pearl being used mixed with retreating footsteps as the two of them went their separate ways. Fundy sat on the ground against the Church for a moment, contemplating what he'd just seen. He felt like he was missing something, but for the most part he understood it.

Tommy had apologized to George and given him back stuff that'd appearantly been taken, and then told George to not bring it up. He'd said something about them thinking he'd done it being selfish, and while that stung, it was something Fundy couldn't deny being the case. It _did_ hurt him slightly that the boy was more open to idea of Dream knowing about it than them, given the fact that the other man was the cause of the whole problem.

He stood again, going back over to the icecream shop and thinking about it more as he went back to what he'd been doing.

\--------

The rest of the day came and went without much happening; Tommy just moved his stuff and removed the signs on the front of his old house so Connor could do whatever he felt like with it. All the new house was missing was an enderchest, but he could probably just go steal one at some point.

Or ask someone for one, but stealing was essentially the same thing with less steps.

He tied Elmer up next to the door, deciding that he would make a little stable for him the next day after the stupid meeting. Once he put the last bit of stuff into his new chest room, he plopped down on his couch with a sense of exhaustion and satisfaction. He took in the (in his opinion) well decorated room he'd made, happy with his decision.

The only drawback really was the loss of an easy way to get to his vacation house, but he could probably rig up a rail underground or something so it didn't worry him too much.

He pulled the book out, and it openned itself before writing, " _The fox and duck will be here in fifteen minutes for your report of the day, I reccomend you don't tell him about your meeting with the bluejay._ "

"Yeah, no shit,", Tommy said, rolling his eyes as he got some paper out to write the stupid ' _homework_ ' for Fundy, "Kinda defeats the purpose of it being secret if I just fucking tell him, doesn't it?"

" _You were considering it, earlier._ "

"I changed my mind."

" _Ok._ "

He took a look through the day's logs while he waited for Fundy and Quackity to show up, putting the book down next to him on the couch when he heard a knock at his door. He grabbed his report before going over to open it.

Quackity was the one to knock, eager to see the interior of Tommy's new place, "Eyyy! Tommy!"

"Eyyy! Big Q!", he greeted as he shoved the paper saying what he'd done that day into Fundy's hands.

"Yo this place actually looks good!", Quackity said as he poked his head in the doorway and looked around, "How'd you manage to do this in only two days?"

Tommy tried not to let the ' _actually_ ' in that statement get to him as he beamed at the compliment, "I did it so fast cause I'm fucking awesome!"

Fundy looked over the paper he'd been handed, "This is everything you've done today?"

"Yeah? Just moved my shit and read a book,", he thought for a moment, "Oh, also talked to Puffy and Connor this morning, gave Connor my old house. Must have slipped my mind, happened right after I woke up."

Fundy nodded, looking like he was thinking about something, "Right, ok. And you're _sure_ that's all you did today? Remember, you're supposed to tell me everything. I know the meeting is tommorow but you still have to report to me."

"Is it seriously that hard for you to believe that I just moved shit around and sat down to read some shit?"

Fundy looked at him silently, ears drawn back.

Tommy rolled his eyes, crossing his arms, "Don't look at me like that, you furry son of a bitch! Hate to dissapoint you, but not every day is full of some fun stupid shit to pass the time."

Fundy looked at him for another moment before shaking his head, "Fine, but you'd better not be lying about it. That'll just extend your probabtion."

"I didn't!"

"I'm not saying you did."

"Oh my god, you literally just- No, you know what? Whatever. You got what you came out here for, now go away."

Fundy and Quackity gave eachother a glance, surprised by Tommy's sudden shift in tone. Quackity just shrugged before starting to walk away.

Fundy looked at Tommy again for a moment, an expression on his face the boy couldn't quite place. "The meeting with Dream is tomorrow at noon, don't be late."

"Oh my fucking god, will you just go already?! I already know when the fucking meeting is, just leave my house already."

"You don't need to snap like that, I'm already going."

"No, you're not. You're sitting here insulting my fucking inteligence and being all sus of me when I haven't actually done anything wrong."

"Outside of the George thing."

" _Leave_ ,", Tommy said as he slammed the door in the fox's face.

Fundy sighed before walking away, his tail hung low and ears drawn back.

~-~-~

Tommy woke up the next morning fairly early, still mildly pissed from the day pevious and needing to burn some energy. He made himself a shit wood sword and walked a few minutes from his house, taking his frustrations out on a poor, defenseless birch tree.

He did this for a while, going between a few trees once they started looking ready to fall over. He paused when he felt his comm going off, dropping the barely holding on sword to the ground as he flopped down against a tree he hadn't attacked yet.

It was a message from Dream, asking where he was so they could talk before the meeting. He sent a reply saying he was near his new house and that he'd be back in a few minutes. Dream just sent him a ' _k_ ' in response, causing Tommy to roll his eyes because _of course_ Dream would be the type to do that.

A few minutes later, Tommy was back at his house, sore and sweaty from the morning spent defying the Lorax but ultimately in a better mood now that he'd let his anger out. A few more minutes, and Dream was pearling in out of nowhere and giving him a heart attack.

Falling onto his ass _again_ in front of Dream, Tommy could only glare as the older man just laughed at him before offering a hand.

"Oh yeah, laugh at me after giving me a fucking heart attack. How kind of you."

"Sorry, but you just-", Dream cut himself off with another laugh.

"Look, will you shut the fuck up and tell me what was so fucking important that you couldn't just send it to me?"

"Alright, alright,", Dream said as he regained his composure, standing up straight again, "Don't come to the meeting. I'll-"

"Are you fucking serious?!"

"Let me-"

"Why the fuck would I not go to a fucking meeting that's about whether or not I'm getting fucking _exiled_?!"

"Let me talk. You stay here, I'll call you and you keep yourself muted. That way, Tubbo doesn't know you're listening and you can get his actual thoughs on the issue without him trying to soften it because you're there."

"Big T doesn't do that, though. We're honest with eachother and shit."

"Then this shouldn't be an issue. If you're right, you get your discs. If I'm right-"

"You're not."

" _If I'm right_ , you get the freedom to do what you want and you can work on fixing the issues you guys have."

Tommy looked down at the ground, his arms crossed, "I'll be honest with you, Dream. If you're right- and I hate to say that I've been thinking about this, cause all of this is just fucked, but if you are right about this... I don't actually know if I want to even worry about fixing it."

"Well, don't say that. Even if you guys have issues, you're still fri-"

"Dream,", Tommy interupted him, anger clear on his face, "If he decides to exile me, I don't want to be his fucking friend. If he just throws me the fuck out over something this fucking small then obviously he doesn't actually give a shit."

Dream looked at him silently, his mouth drawn in a frown. "I'm really sorry about all of this, I know I probably should have just left it alone but I couldn't just sit there and watch him start to treat you like shit." Tommy openned his mouth to say something, but Dream cut him off, "And I know it wasn't that bad, but it would have gotten there. I've seen it happen too many times to just leave it."

"Yeah well..." Tommy tried to think of something to say in response, but came up with nothing. 

Dream looked at him awkwardly for a moment before stepping closer and giving him a hug.

Tommy tensed at the sudden contact before trying to scramble away in embarassment. "What the fuck?! Get the fuck away you ugly green bastard! I'll fucking shiv you, what the fuck are you doing?!"

"It's a hug, you looked like you needed one,", Dream said with a chuckle at his reaction, ruffling the boy's hair before stepping away again.

"Don't just fucking do that, it's fucking embarassing!", Tommy said, his arms crossed and chest puffed.

That made Dream start laughing, doubling over slightly in an attempt to breath properly again, "Sorry! I'll be sure to ask first next time."

Tommy looked at the ground, trying to process the fact that _Dream_ had just tried to comfort him (and it'd helped).

Dream collected himself again, checking the time on his comm. "The meeting is in an hour, I should start heading back. They made a little room behind Church Prime,", he said, looking up from his comm to see Tommy checking the book.

The boy made a noise of acknowledgement. "The book says that they'll already be inside by the time you get there, so call me right before you go in,", he paused for a moment before letting out an annoyed groan at the next bit he read, "Appearantly they'll be sending Fundy after me when I'm not there, wonderful."

"Hopefully the meeting will be over before he gets here, I don't see him wasting pearls to get around quicker."

"Hopefully he doesn't show up at all, he's so fucking annoying."

"Good luck dealing with that, I need to leave so I'm on time."

"Yeah, whatever, I just want this over with."

Dream gave him a little salute before pearling away, leaving Tommy there to think. He stood there in silence for a few minutes before going inside and sitting down on his couch, looking down at the book. "Is this going to go well?"

" _Spoilers._ "

"Like hell it is! You know what's going to happen, just tell me so I don't have to sit here stressing about it!"

" _You haven't eaten yet, you used alot of energy this morning._ "

"Don't fucking deflect this, tell me how the meeting is gonna go!"

" _You'll know in less than an hour, make some food to pass the time._ "

Tommy muttered some very rude words under his breath as he went to make some breakfast, not at all in the mood to keep arguing. He tried to think about something else to take his mind off of it; places to make a mine, the stable he had to build for Big Man Elmer, organizing the books he had. It only helped a bit, the nerves for the impending meeting getting to him.

Not actually having to _be_ there made him feel a bit better, but the idea that Tubbo could actually exile him was something he'd seriously started to consider. It hurt him more than almost anything else he'd been through, the idea of his best friend throwing him to the side because (from the other boy's perspective) Dream decided to throw a fit over something that happens near daily on the server anyways.

He sat on the couch, just thinking about how this could possibly go. He was startled by his comm going off.

Tommy almost answered it, thinking it was Dream, before looking and seeing that it was actually Tubbo. He thought about just answering it and telling him everything, saying sorry for even doubting him and going from there.

But, thanks to that voice in the back of his head that'd been growing louder the last few days, the _what if_ that was constantly there, he let it ring until it silenced itself. It went off a few more times before Tubbo presumably gave up, and then a few minutes later the call from Dream came.

" _Yo._ "

"About fucking time, Tubbo just called me like ten fucking times."

There was a bit of a chuckle on the other side, " _Sorry, I just got here. My mic should be set sensitive enough you can hear everything, mute up and I'll go in._ "

"Alright, let's just get this over with." He did as he was told, muting his mic and just listening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *cries because this is the only thing circumventing my art block and even then only mildly*


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NEARLY 8000 WORD CHAPTER POG

\--------

Dream sighed before walking into the building, putting on a fake, cocky smile as he sat in the chair they'd provided for him. "Hey,", he greeted, voice casual.

Across from him, Tubbo, Quackity, Fundy, and Ranboo all sat there looking nervous.

"Hello, Dream,", Tubbo started, sounding pretty tired, "Tommy's not uh, here yet. I tried calling him, but he didn't answer."

Quackity scoffed, rolling his eyes, "He's probably asleep still, of course he'd forget."

Tubbo sighed before turning to Fundy, "He _would_ sleep through this. Fundy, could you go get him?"

The fox nodded, already standing, "Yeah, I'll go get my armor first in case he tries some shit."

"Good idea."

Dream tried to hide his annoyance at how they were speaking about Tommy, almost wishing he hadn't called him but knowing it was important for him to hear this. He kept his act up, continuing to grin, "We can start without him, you already know what I want."

Tubbo looked him in the eye, his expression tight. "I know, but I'd rather he-"

"Tubbo. He doesn't need to be here for it, I don't have all day."

The boy looked at him for a moment before sighing and nodding his head, "Yeah, I guess you're right. His own damn fault for not being where he should be."

Dream adjusted his mask so that an eye was poking out, trying his best to look intimidating. "I want two things. One: I want him exiled from L'manberg."

Tubbo nodded, "Right, you've already told me that. I'd really rather come up with something else, though."

"The second thing I want is the disc you have."

"What?!", Quackity stood from his chair, angry, "You said it was either or with it, not both!"

Tubbo grabbed his arm, getting his attention. "Big Q calm down, I'll handle this,", he said before looking back at Dream, "He's right, though. Before, you said it was either we exile him or give you the disc."

Dream shrugged, keeping his tone casual. "I changed my mind. If you don't kick him out, he's gonna keep causing you problems, and I want the disc so I have leverage."

Tubbo looked like he was thinking about it, biting his lip. "I can't just..."

"It's not that hard of a decision. He's the main reason you guys get into wars anyways, right?"

Quackity looked ready to attack, though he stayed in his chair this time, "That's not true! Tubbo, you aren't seriously-"

" _Quackity_ , I said let me handle it,", he cut him off, not even bothering to look back at him, "Dream, you have to understand, I can't just kick Tommy out. He's my friend, I don't want to just give him the boot. I'll give you the disc, but Tommy stays."

Dream scoffed, trying his best to not just outright laugh at him. "Y'know he actually apologized to George?"

"Wait, really?"

Dream tried not to scoff at the genuine surprise in Tubbo's voice, "Yeah, George told me Tommy met up with him and gave him back the stuff he took."

Tubbo rolled his eyes, "He probaby just did it to try getting out of trouble. But that means the issue is dealt with, doesn't it?"

Dream laughed, "I mean, _that_ issue got settled, but what about next time? He's always causing shit, and sure maybe next thing he does you could give me the disc but then what about the time after that?" He folded his hands on the table in front of him, "What do you give me the _next time_ he does something?"

"Well... hopefully there won't _be_ a next time. We can keep him on a tighter leash, if you want? He stays on probabtion until we feel he's learned his lesson and make sure there's always someone with him."

"Hmm... as tempting as that is, I still think it'd be better for you to just kick him out." 

Tubbo went quiet, staring down at the table and avoiding eye contact. Quackity looked worried, leaning in to whisper in his ear.

Tubbo shook his head slightly, looking back up and making eye contact with Dream. "How long do you propose the exile is?"

Quackity gasped, jumping up from his chair again so he could move away from Tubbo, "You're not actually considering it, are you?!"

Tubbo stood as well, looking at his (currently) temporary Vice President and slamming his hand on the table, "Quackity, I've told you to be quiet so many times now! This is my decision to make, and you constantly jumping in isn't helping anything!"

"But you can't just throw out Tommy, man! He's your best friend!"

"He's a liability! All he does is start shit and expect other people to clean up after him! All he cares about is those stupid fucking discs and I'm tired of it. He couldn't even be bothered to show up!", Tubbo walked over to the ender chest in the corner, getting Mellohi out, "Ranboo, bring the parchment over."

The enderman hybrid that had been standing in the corner did as he was told, cautiously walking over to the center of the table as Tubbo set the disc down.

"I'll give you the disc, and Tommy is exiled until he learns his lesson. Does that sound like a fair deal?"

Dream tried to keep his voice neutral, a fake smile on his face as he slid his mask back over his face, "Sounds good to me, you sign it first."

And Tubbo did, angrilly scrawling in his name on the bottom of the deal Ranboo had transcribed for them.

"Tubbo! Come on man, you can't be serious!", Quackity said, still trying to make him stop.

"I am! Y'know I'm the President here, and none of you respect my authority,", Tubbo slid the paper and pen toward Dream, "I'm tired of it at this point. If he wants to go around starting shit, he can clean it up on his own, I'm done putting up with him. Tommyinnit is officially exiled from L'Manberg."

Quackity looked at Tubbo in disbelief as Dream signed the paper, Ranboo just standing in a corner looking uncomfortable.

Once Dream was done signing he stood, grabbing the disc and going over to put it in the ender chest. "Well, Tubbo,", Dream started as he messed with his comm, putting it on speaker, "you're _definately_ the type of person meant to be a President."

There was a pause, everyone confused by his statement.

"Is that meant to be a compliment or something?", Tubbo asked, feeling nervous again.

"I don't know,", Dream said as he held up his wrist, looking at his comm, "Tommy, you think he should take that as a compliment?"

Everyone else in the room froze as a loud, hurt laugh came through the comm.

" _Holy shit, you were right. You didn't even push that hard, he just did it._ "

Tubbo looked horrified, bringing a hand up to cover his mouth, "W-wait what's-"

" _You sounded so confident earlier, Tubbo. Is the fact that your fucking ' **liability** ' heard your speech something that bugs you?_"

"Wait, Tommy, that's not-"

" _I don't want to hear a damn thing from you, you fucking traitor,_ ", Tommy's tone was cold, any fake humor gone, " _I trusted you, I thought you actually fucking cared._ "

"I do, Tommy! Dream's the one that-"

" _Dream's the one that warned me about you. I'm done with this, I don't need to hear any more fucking bullshit._ "

"Tommy-"

There was the sound of a call ending, and they all stood there silently for a few moments before Tubbo exploded at the masked man in front of him. "What the fuck is wrong with you?!" He had tears running down his face.

" _You're_ the one that just exiled someone because of some light peer pressure."

"Shut the fuck up! I don't know what you told him but-"

"I told him the truth. Believe it or not but there actually _are_ people here that care about him."

"Yeah, us!", Quackity jumped in, breaking out of his shock finally, "You just lied to him and tricked Tubbo into exiling him!"

Dream started laughing, doubling over as he wheezed. "I didn't lie about anything! I told him you guys were going to hurt him in the long run and helped him get away."

"The only one here who's hurt him is you, Dream,", Tubbo said, his voice cold.

Dream stopped laughing, standing up straight and crossing his arms. "He didn't believe me when I told him, y'know, like at all."

"Because you were lying!", Quackity said as he took a step closer.

"He had so much faith in you, Tubbo, that he made a deal with me. If I was wrong I was gonna give him his discs back. If I was right, he get's freedom,", he smirked, " _I'm_ the one that told him to mess with George's house. _I'm_ the reason he didn't show up today."

Tubbo looked up at him, his whole body shaking with rage, "So you set this all up so he wouldn't trust us anymore?"

"No, I did it so he'd know what you actually thought and understand that he needed to get away before you ended up hurting him any more than you already have."

Dream turned to leave, but Tubbo pearled into the doorway, blocking him, "No, you are not just _leaving_ after all of that!"

Dream easilly pushed him to the side, continuing on his way out, "No, I think I am. Like I said, I've got stuff to do today."

"This isn't over! You just stole Tommy's disc from me!"

"You gave it to me, and I'm giving it back to him. I'll have someone take the walls down by the end of the week, there's not going to be any wars between the smp and L'manberg for now."

"You can't just-" Dream pearled away before the boy could finish, leaving him there to just scream profanity and throw a fit next to the Church.

\--------

Tommy stared down numbly at his comm after he ended the call, not sure how to feel.

He should probably feel angry, right? Tubbo very easily exiled him, and gave his disc to Dream.

He can't bring himself to feel angry though, a numb sort of acceptance settling on him. He'd already accepted it, before it happened, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

How long had he known Tubbo didn't want him there?

That wasn't something he could answer, but he knew that he wouldn't have noticed if Dream hadn't shown him.

His comm was being flooded with messages from Tubbo and Quackity, telling him to join a vc with them. He didn't respond, but he did call scum into the vc that contained Tubbo, Fundy, and Quackity.

" _-end you the coords, I'm like ten minutes away now that I'm running,_ ", Fundy's voice came through.

There was a second of silence on the call, all of them hearing the noise of someone joining but not seeing a new name, before they continued.

" _Shit, man, what are we gonna do?_ ", Quackity asked, he sounded stressed.

" _What the fuck even happened?!_ ", Fundy asked, sounding more confused than anything else.

" _I'll explain later, for now we just need to talk to him before Dream can pull any more shit,_ ", Tubbo said, he sounded like he'd been screaming and Tommy wondered what had gone down after he'd hung up.

He looked down at the book, where it was open next to him. "What do you reckon I should do?"

It wrote, " _The fox is approaching, however the chameleon contacted some back-up that he should be arriving with soon._ "

Tommy nodded his head before focussing on the call again.

" _Tubbo,_ ", Fundy started, " _am I fighting him or just talking to him?_ "

There was a long pause on the line, no one saying anything.

" _... Talk to him first, our goal is to get him back to L'Manberg so we can deal with him here. If he doesn't listen, you can try to knock him out or tie him up or something._ "

" _ **Tubbo**! You can't be serious. He's pissed at us, why the fuck would we want to make it worse by fucking kidnapping him?!_", Quackity sounded ready to punch someone, something Tommy could relate to.

" _Big Q, we don't really have much of a choice. We can't let him side with Dream, he's one of our stongest fighters,_ " Tubbo sounded more angry than anything else.

Quackity gasped at him, " _There's no way that's what you're worried about right-_ "

Tommy decided he'd heard enough, opting to close the call and get his sword out. He set it on the couch next to him, just in case. "Anything to add before the fucking furry gets here to fight me?", he asked the book as he set it on the floor in a place only he could see from the angle.

" _Don't let him capture you, hold your own until help arrives._ "

He sighed, leaning his head back and closing his eyes, "So what I planned to do already, then. Fantastic."

He sat there like that until he heard a hesitant knock at his door a few minutes later, making him open his eyes again and look over at the source of the sound.

"It's open!", he called out across the room, not bothering to stand up.

Fundy openned the door, cautiously coming inside. "Hey, Tommy,", Fundy started, sounding nervous, "You know the meeting was today, right?"

"Oh, I already know about it, yeah. Really funny how people talk about you when they think you can't hear them,", he moved his hands behind his head, "Really makes you fucking stop and think about shit, y'know?"

Fundy looked at him, listening to something being said on his comm before stepping a bit closer, "Listen, man, I don't know what happened but Tubbo said to tell you he's sorry. He asked me to come get you so we can all talk face to face."

Tommy considered that for a second before shaking his head, "Nah, don't really feel like it. Couch is pretty comfortable, y'know? Not to mention the fact that there's a signed paper decreeing that ' _Tommyinnit is officially exiled from L'Manberg_ ', don't think there's really a place for us to talk."

Fundy paused at that, looking down at his comm, "Wait, Tubbo, you actually exiled him?"

There was a shout on the other side that Tommy could just barely hear from where he was sitting; something about lying and Dream.

He took the opporitunity to look down at the book while Fundy was distracted, seeing " _The fox saw you meet with the bluejay, bring that up._ " scrawled down and giggling at it.

Fundy looked up at him, confused by the sudden bout of laughter coming from the boy. "What are you laughing at?", he asked, gripping the handle of his axe a bit tighter.

Tommy pretened to look at his own comm before making eye contact with the fox, "So, you saw me give George his shit back, did you?"

"I- How the fuck do you know that?"

"Isn't it funny that you thought that everything was legit and you didn't tell anyone else about it?"

"I...", Fundy looked to the side, guilty on his face, "I forgot. I meant to bring it up to Tubbo before the meeting but I got distracted."

More chatter on the comm, something that was starting to annoy him. "I saw him say sorry to George and give him back the stuff he stole when he griefed his house,", Fundy answered the unheard question, "No, it just slipped my mind but-" The fox's brow furrowed as he looked from his comm up at Tommy, whatever was being said making his ears pin to the sides of his head.

Tommy waited impatiently for the conversation on the comm to end, only thing stopping him from scumming back into it being the fact that Fundy might see him do it.

After another minute or two, Fundy left the call and looked back up at him, axe raised, "Listen man, I don't know what the fuck happened, but Tubbo is pissed and he told me to bring you back to L'Manberg. Either you walk or I carry you."

Tommy stood, grabbing his sword loosely as he gestured toward the door, "I'm the one that should be pissed, seeing as how he just gave away my fucking disc and exiled me from my own fucking country for a _second_ time. And I'm all up for a fucking fight, but I'd rather it happen outside so I don't need to clean up the blood. That shit stains, y'know?"

Fundy looked at him for a moment before slowly backing through the door, keeping his eyes on Tommy the whole time, "I don't want to fight you, Tommy. You don't even have any armor on."

"Sorry Mr.' _Full Netherite_ ', not all of us can be that fucking rich. Do you got thorns on that shit or are you a bitch?", Tommy was slowly following him to the door, keeping the same pace.

"No, I don't have thorns. Don't try to run once you get out here, I have enough pearls to be able to catch you."

Tommy rolled his eyes once they were both outside, closing the door behind him as he raised his sword, "I'm not running. Needed a way to let out my anger, and the trees can only take so many fucking hits."

"Tommy-"

"I am _not_ going back with you to that fucking traitor. What I _am_ gonna do is beat your ass and then go back inside my fucking house so I can relax."

Fundy sighed before adjusting the grip on his axe so he could get ready to fight, "Don't do this, Tommy. You're on your last life, and you don't even have any armor on. Just come with me so we can talk about this."

Tommy also changed how he was holding his weapon, "I don't want to. And besides, I'm exiled again. You didn't give a shit the first time, why would you now?"

Fundy gave him an exasperated look at that statement, "You know that's not-"

He was cut off by Tommy lunging at him sword first, almost immediately landing a hit and catching him off guard.

"No fair, you didn't even let me finish talking!", the fox screamed as he defended, jumping back to avoid another hit.

"Not my problem, bitch! Maybe you should pay more attention!", Tommy said, laughing as he attacked. His laugh sounded hollow, though, more sad than anything else.

Fundy tried to kite him around the clearing, cautiously herding him in the direction of the smp and L'Manberg. The boy caught on pretty quickly to that, though, and forcefully returned to the area in front of his house.

"That's not going to fucking work, I'm not stupid,", Tommy said between breaths, "Come on, then. I'm still fucking seething, I need to hit you some more."

Fundy hesitantly went toward him again, this time being the first to attack as he lunged forward with his axe. Tommy blocked it easilly, deflecting it and getting a hit on Fundy's side before he could be blocked again. Fundy swung at him, and he jumped back to avoid it.

"Come on! just stop already before I actually hit you!", Fundy was starting to get nervous, worried he would accidentally do too much damage to him.

Tommy laughed again, this one actually sounding almost like it usually did, "I'd like to see you fucking try! I trained with Technoblade, bitch, you can't do shit to me!"

The boy came close again, faking Fundy out with a hit to the left before immediately switching so he could hit his right. The fox just barely managed to block it, panting as he shoved Tommy's sword back and prepared to actually hit him. Tommy narrowly avoided the brunt of it, losing four hearts as the axe hit his arm, tearing his undershirt and making a cut in his skin.

He moved back, breathing heavilly as he checked to make sure he could still use his arm well enough to keep fighting. He froze, realizing that the lower half of his left sleeve had torn and exposed the marking from the book. He quickly strapped his sword to his hip, placing his hand over his wrist and pretending he'd been injured there as he took a few rushed steps back, further away from Fundy. "Shit...", he muttered under his breath, panting.

\--------

Fundy's ears were pinned back against his head, regret almost immediately evident on his face. "Hey, you alright?", he asked, staying where he was but lowering his axe slightly.

Tommy looked up at him, a scowl on his face, "Just fucking wonderful, thanks for asking."

Fundy looked down at where Tommy was holding on his wrist, face twisting in confusion when he realized that wasn't where he'd been cut. He put his axe in it's holder and cautiosly made his way over. For every step forward Fundy made, Tommy took one back until suddenly he hit a tree. He looked around in a panic as the fox sped up towards him.

Fundy carefully went to grab Tommy's arm, only for the boy to suddenly pull his sword back out and swipe at him.

"Back the fuck off!", Tommy yelled, sounding scared almost.

Fundy jumped back, sustaining a hit as he got his axe out again. He took a second to collect himself before looking down at the boy's arm. Fox ears flattened in confusion as he saw something that looked like a weird tattoo on Tommy's wrist. "The fuck is that?"

He was answered by Tommy going at him, even more angry than he'd been before. The boy was landing hit after hit, rage evident on his face.

Even with just an iron sword, Tommy was doing enough damage that Fundy felt the need to fight back, landing a propper hit on the boy's chest and bringing him down to two hearts.

Tommy coughed up a bit of blood, retreating again as he tried to figure out what to do.

Fundy raised his axe, pointing it at him, "You've gotta be low at this point, just give up and come with me."

Tommy spat more blood out, a sneer on his face, "Fuck off."

"Tommy, I don't want to kill you."

"Then don't, pretty easy way to solve this I'd say."

"I have to bring you back to L'Manberg, Tommy,", Fundy said, sounding unsure of himself, "Like I said I don't know what happened, but we can-"

He was cut off by a boot to the side of his head, falling to the ground as his assailant landed nearby with a roll.

It took a second for Fundy to get his bearings, looking up to see what'd happened to him. He put a hand to his now bleeding nose as he watched Badboyhalo stand before getting an axe out.

The fox was ready to get back up and fight, only to feel a sword getting pressed into the back of his neck. He cautiously turned to see Skeppy there, full netherite kit and sword. It only took that moment of him looking away for Bad to cross the field and have an axe at his throat.

"Leave,", was the only thing to come out of the demon's mouth, anger lacing his voice.

Fundy got up, careful of both the weapons currently in contact with him. "I need to bring him back with me,", he said lamely.

"Were you planning on taking back his body or something? Cause it looked like you were about to kill him,", Skeppy said, sounding almost as angry as Bad.

Fundy quickly moved to the side, out of the range of the weapons previously being pressed onto him. "You taking his side is going to be seen as a slight from the Badlands against L'Manberg,", Fundy said, getting his axe out again.

"I don't care, now leave before you lose a life,", Bad said as he took a few steps foreward.

Fundy wanted to fight, but he knew he was outnumbered. Tail tucked between his legs, he stepped backwards a few times before making eye contact with Tommy. "I still don't know what happened, but I'll probably be back. Tubbo sounded way too upset to just let this drop."

Bad hissed at him, stepping forward again, "Leave."

Fundy took one last look at all of them before running back toward L'Manberg. Once he was a good distance away, he stopped and rejoined the vc that contained Tubbo and Quackity. "Ok, so... bad news."

\--------

Tommy watched as Fundy retreated, almost immediately swaying on his feet once the fox was out of his line of sight. Skeppy quickly caught him, helping him stay upright as Bad also came over.

"Dream's making sure Fundy actually leaves, he should be here in a bit,", Bad said, handing him a golden apple.

Tommy accepted it, quickly eating it and standing on his own as it took effect. "Ok, and why are you here?"

Skeppy moved away once the boy could stand on his own again, putting his sword away and crossing his arms, "What, no ' _thank you_ '? You were getting your ass kicked before-"

"Language! Give him a break, he's been through alot today,", Bad looked from Skeppy to Tommy, "Dream told us what happened before he remembered Fundy was going to your house."

"Right, and how is that any of your fucking business?"

"Language. Maybe it'd be better to go inside, in case someone else from L'Manberg tries to come out here."

Tommy hesitated for a second before nodding, figuring that if they wanted to attack him or something they probably wouldn't have wasted a gapple on him. A few minutes later, he and Bad were situated in his livingroom with Skeppy watching the door.

Before Tommy could ask anything, he paled as he watched Bad sniff the air a bit before grabbing the book from the spot it been hidden under the table on the floor.

"Why was this just sitting on the floor?", he asked, turning it over in his hands.

Tommy quickly reached over and grabbed it from him, shoving it to the side, "None of your fucking business! How'd you even know it was down there?!"

"Language, Tommy! I figured Dream would have told you I knew about it."

"He told me you knew _he_ had it, not that you could smell it or some weird shit like that."

"Language!"

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fu-"

"Hey! Stop it!", Bad folded his arms and puffed his cheeks out, little demon tail flicking against the back of the couch in frustration.

Skeppy was barely containing a laugh as Tommy full out cackled. Bad was about to say something before stopping, grabbing Tommy's left arm.

"Hey, hands off!", Tommy said as he tried to pull away.

Bad flushed a bit, quickly letting go and raising both hands up in front of himself. "Ahh, sorry! I was just curious what your bookmark looked like, I probably should have asked first."

"My fucking what?"

Bad pointed at Tommy's currently exposed wrist, "Your bookmark, it's the weird bite thingy it gave you. Also, language."

Tommy looked over the weird bite tattoo thing the book had given him a few days ago, pulling back what little bits of his sleeve were left there and internally complaining about the fact that he was going to have to fix that. "How much do you know about this?"

"Only what Dream told me,", Bad said with a shrug, "I can't read it. I can tell when it's around, though, and when it's been bound to someone."

"How the fuck do you know someone's been ' _bound_ ' to it if it tells everyone to cover their fucking bite? Or bookmark or whatever."

Bad sighed, not even bothering to correct him for swearing this time, "I thought it was just a thing with Dream at first, but the fact that I could tell just by getting near you confirmed it's a thing with the book itself. There was also-"

Bad was cut off by the book slamming a few times from the spot Tommy had tucked it next to him. He pulled it back out, and the book immediately openned up and scrawled out " _Spoilers_ ", making Tommy sigh in annoyance.

"What the fuck, man! How is that ' _spoilers_ '? It wasn't even something I was asking _you_ about!"

The book wrote, " _You'll learn it on your own eventually, for now it's spoilers._ "

He slammed it closed before turning his attention back to Bad, "Who else did you know was a main character?"

"Sorry, if the book says something is a spoiler, I don't think I can tell you. Dream was pretty serious about that when he had it."

Speak of the devil, Dream appeared at that moment. "What am I serious about?"

Tommy shrieked at the sudden appearance of the masked man, causing everyone else to laugh. "Fucks sake, man! That's the second time today! Stop being spooky and shit."

"Language. Appearantly the book said something was a spoiler and he's upset I won't tell him,", Bad said as Dream sat down in the middle of the couch between him and Tommy.

Dream nodded, "Right. Yeah, no, spoilers are something you should take seriously."

Tommy let out a frustrated groan, "That's stupid."

"Not my rules. It just works out better if you take it seriously,", Dream shrugged before turning to look at him, "How are you doing right now, though? I'm gonna guess Fundy tried to fight you going off how messed up your clothes are."

"That fucking furry brought me down to _two_ hearts! He was talking about how ' _oh, Tubbo's sorry, let's go back to L'Manberg and talk about shit! I'm just here to talk but either you come with me or I'm knocking you the fuck out_ '! I fucking scummed into their vc before he showed up, Tubbo's only fucking worried that I'm gonna side with you and fight him or some shit. Can you fucking believe that?", Tommy had to catch his breath, not realizing tears had started falling, "He even told Fundy he could knock me out to get me back! If I knew he was gonna turn into fucking JSchlatt I would have gone with fucking Te-"

He was cut off by Dream pulling him into a hug, a hand on the back of his head as it was tucked against the man's shoulder. "Sorry, I know I said I'd ask first next time, but it's alright. You're alright for now. We'll make sure none of them can even come near here until you're ready to deal with them."

Tommy froze, finally realizing he'd been crying, before slowly returning the gesture. They sat there like that for a bit, no one saying anything as Tommy calmed down. He let go after a few minutes, Dream doing the same.

Tommy pressed the palms of his hands to his eyes, both in an effort to wipe away the tears and make sure no more were going to fall. "Ah, fuck, that was embarassing."

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, just needed to let that out, I think,", he paused for a second, remembering that Bad and Skeppy were in the room with them and quickly glaring, "If any of you tell anyone you saw me fucking cry I'll stab you."

Dream sighed, a small smile on his face.

Bad was also offering him a smile, "There's nothing wrong with crying, everyone does it."

"I don't!"

"You just did.", Skeppy added, still over by the door.

"Fuck you, shut up!"

"Language!"

Dream laughed for a second at the exchange before looking around the room. "Tommy, where's your ender chest at?"

"Don't got one yet, was planning on dealing with that today but uh... Yeah I'd rather avoid the general area of the smp for right now."

"Oh, I have one!", Bad said, an ender chest now in his hand, "Where do you want it at?"

Tommy brought a hand to his chin, thinking for a second. "Next to the door, easiest place for it."

"Okay."

A few seconds later, and they were all standing around a freshly placed ender chest. Tommy had his arms folded as he watched Dream dig around in it, "What was so important that you needed an ender chest right now?"

Dream didn't answer, instead quickly pulling something out and hiding it before gesturing for Skeppy to do the same. Once the blue boy had also gotten something out, Dream turned back to Tommy and moved his mask to show his entire face.

Tommy took a step back slightly, startled by this, "What the fuck?"

Dream chuckled a bit, "What kind of reaction is that?"

"I'm- It's just- Your mask being-"

Dream waited for him to finish rambling before continuing. "I know that alot has happened, not just in the last few days. I know I haven't exactly been the best, for like a while, and there's a bunch of stuff I should have done differently. Uh,", Dream brought a hand to the back of his neck, "I wanted to try to make some of that right, and I completely understand if you don't accept my apology but I at least wanted to do _something_ to show you can trust me if something happens. So,"

He pulled something out of his bag, grabbing a similarlly shaped object from Skeppy and holding it out in front of him.

Tommy's breath caught in his throat as he stared at what Dream was offering to him: his discs.

The boy cautiously reached forward, placing a hand on the discs and stopping as he made eye contact with Dream. "The deal was you giving it back if I was right, but I wasn't."

Dream looked to the side, an awkward smile on his face. "I kinda planned to give them back to you anyways,", he let out a nervous chuckle, "Like I said, it's a sign that I'm on your side; like, actually this time."

Tommy narrowed his eyes a bit as he slowly took the discs, examining them, "And these are actually _my_ discs?"

"Unless the one Tubbo had was fake, these are the real ones."

Tommy held the discs against his chest, looking down at the floor. "Thank you,", he said quietly.

Dream smiled at him before checking the time on his comm. He looked at Bad and Skeppy, "It's only like two-thirty, and I wouldn't be surprised if they try something else today, but I think it's alright if you guys want to head back. Sorry for just suddenly asking you to help out, but thanks for getting here before I did. That could have ended really badly."

Tommy quietly moved to put the discs in his ender chest, just listening in.

"Of course! I'm just happy we got here before Fundy could actually kill him, extra lives or not,", Bad said.

Skeppy nodded beside him, "Yeah, that was pretty fucked up."

"Language, but yeah,", Bad waited a second before turning his attention to Tommy, "If they try anything again and you need help, don't be afraid to message either of us. Or anyone from the Badlands, really. We'll let them know to keep an eye out for people from L'Manberg, I have a feeling there's gonna be some problems soon."

"Right, thanks,", Tommy said quietly before yawning. He paused for a second, quickly turning to go up the stairs to his bedroom; he'd embarassed himself enough today, he really didn't want to be tired in front of them too. "Well, I'm gonna go take a nap, you guys can do whatever. Just leave my stuff alone." 

\--------

"Alright, I'm gonna be hanging around to make sure nothing happens,", Dream said, waving a bit as he watched the boy walk away.

Once Tommy was upstairs, Drean slid his mask back over his face and turned back toward Bad and Skeppy. Both of them were grinning, Skeppy containing a laugh.

"Oh, _what_?", Dream asked, already rolling his eyes.

"You've gotten soft lately, Dream," Bad said with a small laugh.

"I have not."

"You totally have! You used to hate him so much!", Skeppy said, laughing.

"Hey, lower your voice, he said he's tired."

"See, that's what I mean!"

Dream started pushing them both out the door, "Whether I've ' _gotten soft_ ' or not is none of your business, now get out already so I can sit and stare at the wall or something until one of those assholes trys something again."

"Language. See you later."

Once they left, he sighed before walking over to the couch and grabbing the book. "Been a bit, hasn't it?"

It flipped open, " _Only a few days._ "

"Considering the fact that I had you for like a _year_ , a few days is a pretty long time."

" _Fair enough. I'll admit the change is still odd. He's much louder than you, though the attitude is the same._ "

"What?", Dream asked with a chuckle, "What's that supposed to mean?"

" _You're both rather stubborn and unpredictable. Mind changes at a moment's notice. He spent the entire morning trying to decide whether or not he was going to listen to you._ "

"Glad he decided to, then." Dream was silent for a moment. "I know you said it was better to bring it up to him, but I feel bad about it."

" _That's understandable, however you did what's best. Separating them now is a strong story branch that makes it easier to reach the top._ "

"Still feel like shit about it, he was literally _crying_. I don't think I've ever seen him cry, even when he got thrown out before."

" _He didn't feel alone, then. He had hope, something lacking given how many people he thinks have turned their backs on him at this point._ "

Dream turned a bit to look at the stairs, a frown on his face. "This whole situation just sucks,", he looked back down at the book, "Even though I knew what was gonna end up happening, I was almost hoping I was wrong. Maybe there was a better way to go about it."

" _As far as what's happened, the story is set in motion. Regret is a part of life, trying to go back solves nothing. While there may have been a few small things that could have been done differently, this is ultimately the path to the best ending._ "

Dream sighed, placing a hand against his mask, "Right... can't get through without conflict. I'm gonna do my best to keep him safe for now, it's the least I can do for all the shit I've started."

" _How mature of you,_ ", the book paused for a second, " _The bee and the starling are on their way, they've just left the Prime Path._ "

Dream sighed. "So there's an hour before they get here, then?"

" _Yes, however it may benefit you to meet them before they get close. The chick is asleep and there's likely to be shouting._ " 

Dream stood, stretching a bit, "Good call, taking or leaving you?"

The book paused for a few moments. " _I cannot tell which would work out for the better, the starling gives me a bad feeling. He has a sense of familiarity and I have issues predicting him._ "

"Is he not a potential main character?"

" _He does not feel like one._ "

"Wow, ok, yeah that _is_ weird,", Dream brought a hand to his chin as he thought, "Probably better to not risk it, then. I'll just go tell them to go away and get back here."

" _It's not going to be that easy._ "

"Call me an optimist, then. I'm not gonna try fight them or anything, just gonna keep them away. I have a feeling Tubbo is gonna be more of an issue than Phil, considering the fact he's been way more invested in Techno than Tommy."

" _The starling has been playing favorites, it's unintentional but the damage is there. Leave me at the top of the stairs, should things go sour I will be able to warn the chick._ "

Dream nodded, walking toward the steps, "Good idea, wouldn't be surprised if they tried to pull something once they realize I'm not here. Maybe I should call George and have him stop by too?"

" _The bee is smart, but blinded by his point of view. Should he have that sort of foresight the chick can handle himself._ "

Dream sighed quietly before closing the book and setting it down, looking over at the sleeping boy in the corner.

Tommy was curled up in his bed, blankets in a wad that he was hugging tightly to himself and a frown on his face even as he slept.

Dream looked at him for another moment before going back downstairs, getting some armor out of his ender chest and heading out to deal with the fast approaching problem.

Dream walked about 20 minutes out and waited, standing ominously behind a tree in an attempt to look intimidating. Once he heard two sets of footsteps getting closer, he stepped out with his arms folded. "Shouldn't you be back in L'Manberg? I'd imagine inaugurating a new Vice President involves a ton of paperwork."

"Shut up!", Tubbo had his sword out, standing like he could attack at any moment.

Philza stepped in front of the boy, putting a hand up. He also had his weapon drawn, but he looked like he was trying to play neutral. "We're just on our way to talk to Tommy,", Phil sounded calm, but the look in his eye was anything but.

Dream matched his tone, arms staying crossed, "Oh, like Fundy was? Cause last I checked he brought Tommy down to two hearts and tried to kidnap him."

"We're not going to attack him, that's my son."

"Cool that you remebered that now, would have helped him in dealing with all the other shit that's gone on since you got here."

Phil's polite smile fell slightly, his anger starting to show, "I think you've caused enough shit today, Dream. Now let us past so we can clean up your mess."

Dream finally got his own weapon out, his axe casually being held at his side. "No, I don't think I will. He's asleep right now anyways, he needs the rest."

Tubbo growled, pushing past Phil. "This is entirely _your_ fault! You and your chaos and shit! If you just left us alone we'd all be fine!"

" _I'm_ not the one that kicked him out and gave away one of the few things he cares about because of some light arguing. Not like it matters now; he has both his discs back, and he's free to do what he wants without having to walk on eggshells."

"Cut the shit, Dream,", Phil cut in, "You're just trying to make things worse. Techno told me what happened with Wilbur, I won't let you do anything to Tommy."

"Trust me, I feel bad enough about what happened with Wil,", Dream said quietly, "But I'm trying to make it right. First step of that is helping Tommy get away from people who are just gonna throw him away once they think they can't get anything from him."

Tubbo made a noise in offense, "No, you're just manipulating him into joining your side! Everyone in L'Manberg cares about him, your lot are the ones who have done stuff to hurt him."

"What about Techno, then? Isn't that what you did to him?", Dream asked, starting to lose his patience, "Once you took over, you just shoved him to the side and acted like he was the bad guy after. He was transparant with you about what he wanted the whole time; he wanted to get rid of the government. You got in and immediately set up another one while wearing the stuff _he_ gave you."

Tubbo was shaking with anger, "That's not the same! Technoblade was never actually on our side!"

"He was, though. And you just-"

"Alright, look,", Phil interupted, "If you think Tubbo doesn't have good intentions, _I'll_ go and talk to him. Us just standing in the middle of nowhere arguing is doing nothing except shortening the time til mobs and shit start spawning." 

Dream thought about it for a second before shaking his head. "Maybe tomorrow, but he actually _is_ sleeping right now. He's been through the wringer today, and he needs time to mentally recover."

"Funny you care about him now that you've made him upset,", Tubbo said, walking towards Dream, "None of this would have happened if you actually cared. All you've done is make him upset over nothing."

"This isn't ' _nothing_ '. You obviously don't care about him, and now that he's getting away from you you're upset you've lost a tool,", Dream adjusted his mask a bit and scowled at him, "I heard you earlier, the fact that you're more worried about having to fight against him than you are about him being upset with you."

"Because it's _Tommy_ , he's just in a mood! He'll get over it eventually and go back to doing stupid shit like nothing even happened."

"That's the kind of shit that made me decide to help him get away. Him having problem's isn't ' _just a mood_ ', it's him being upset and everyone just making fun of it or ignoring it. I'll admit it took me way too long to see it, but the fact that you never noticed it when you're supposed to be his best friend is astounding to me."

"You can't just talk like you know him! You're the only problem here!"

Tubbo looked ready to keep shouting, but Phil came up and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Maybe we should just leave for now. There's always tomorrow."

"But Phil-"

"He's obviously not going to let us past, it's a long enough walk back that if we don't leave now we're gonna have to fight shit. Just leave Tommy a message for now and we can try to get him to talk to you tomorrow, ok? I'll catch up in a minute."

Tubbo glared at Dream for a silent moment before turning and storming off back in the direction of the smp.

Phil watched him walk away for a second before turning to Dream. "I don't know if you're actually trying to help him or what, but isolating him isn't going to help. He acts out when he's upset, but he _does_ just get into moods sometimes."

"I'm not isolating him, he needs rest. I don't know what Tubbo told you about this, but I'm not the only one in the wrong,", Dream said as he put his axe away.

"I don't doubt that. Even with the limited information I've heard from other people, I know Tubbo's been lying,", Phil said, shaking his head and sounding tired, "Honestly, I regret letting any of them come here. Nothing good has come from it."

"Regret's a part of life, trying to go back doesn't solve anything,", Dream said with a shrug, "I'll ask Tommy if he wants to talk to you tomorrow after he's awake and message you his answer. I think it would actually be better to keep him and Tubbo apart until he calms down, though, that's just gonna make things worse."

Phil looked at him for a second before nodding, an expression on his face that Dream couldn't place. The man started walking in the direction Tubbo had gone, not saying anything else as he left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> canon? who's that? never met that man in my god damn life
> 
> please give me comments i crave validation


	6. Chapter 6

Tommy woke up early the next morning groggy as hell, thanks to the fact that he slept for almost sixteen hours. He looked at his comm, cringing at the amount of messages he had from everyone in L'Manberg.

He didn't bother looking at any of them just yet, stretching as he got out of bed. He started walking toward the stairs, stopping when he noticed the book there. "How'd you get up here?", he asked as he picked it up.

" _The chameleon had to leave for a while, yesterday. I was left up here in case something happened,_ ", it wrote.

"Where's he at, then?"

" _Asleep, on your couch._ "

Tommy laughed as he grabbed his shoes, going to sit on the edge of his bed to put them on. "He seriously spent the night here?"

" _Yes, he wanted to make sure you were safe._ "

"That's touching, almost. Guess I'll have to thank him later, won't I?"

" _He wouldn't be expecting it._ "

Tommy closed the book, setting it to the side as he decided to actually look at some of what'd been sent to him. Saving the massive number of things from Tubbo for later, he openned the one from Phil first.

' _Hey, heard about what happened and wanted to make sure you were alright. Tubbo's worried and Dream wouldn't let us talk to you tonight, but maybe you'd be up to it tomorrow? Even if you just want to talk to me, just let me know. I have no idea what Dream's up to, but be careful. Something he said to me gave me a bad feeling_ ' 

He wasn't sure how to feel after reading it; angry, maybe? Angry at the fact that it took an entire shit show happening for him to notice something was wrong. Even then, it was pretty clear who's side he was on based only on the message.

The hell did he even mean, something ' _gave him a bad feeling_ '? The fuck was that even supposed to mean?

Moving on, Tommy took a quick glance at the rest; Fundy saying he was sorry about attacking him, Quackity trying to get him to talk to him in Mexican L'Manberg (he was still confused by whatever the fuck that was), Ranboo asking what the deal was with all this.

He got to the bottom of the list and paused, seeing a single message from Techno.

' _Imagine getting exiled lmao cringeee_ '

He rolled his eyes as he read it, typing out a reply. ' _If that's the only thing you have to say to me, you can fuck off,_ ', he looked at it for a second before sending, hesitantly adding, ' _You were right though, government's fucked._ '

The reply was almost immediate. ' _This actually you? No way you just said I was right about something._ '

' _Shut the fuck up, I'm trying to be nice and shit._ '

Techno started typing something before erasing it, a call coming through instead.

Tommy answered it with an annoyed sigh, "Technoblade, why the fuck are you calling me at like seven in the morning?"

" _Wait, it **is** actually you messaging me?_"

"Who else would it be?"

" _I dunno, Phil said something about Dream kidnapping you or something._ "

"He did not ' _kidnap_ ' me, he's keeping those dickheads away after Fundy tried to run me through with his axe yesterday."

" _What'd you do to piss them off this time?_ "

Tommy had to keep himself from screaming at him, concious of the fact that Dream was asleep downstairs. "Dream showed me that Tubbo's full of shit by setting something up,", he paused for a second, "I'll be honest, I'm not actually really sure what to do now. I was almost certain Dream was wrong, I never actually figured out what came next when he was."

" _I still have no idea what you're talking about, Tommy._ "

The boy let out a frustrated groan. "Oh my god, learn how to listen. Tubbo was full of shit and L'Manberg is fucked. You were right. Soon as he saw I wasn't going to do what he wanted he threw me out."

There was a hum of understanding on the other side of the call. " _I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting this to happen this fast. I had this whole speech prepared and everything-_ "

"Of course you did, you and Wilbur are such fucking theater kids."

" _ **Like I was saying** ; I had this whole speech prepared, I was gonna set up this cool room with a suit of armor and the walls full of wither skulls-_"

Tommy interupted him with a laugh, "How the fuck would you even get that many fucking skulls?!"

" _... Tommy, you don't understand how boring it is out here. I could either spend hours in the nether getting skulls or just sit at the window watching it snow for the third time this week._ "

" _Snow_?? Where the fuck even are you?"

" _Not important, Phil's the only one that knows where my house is._ "

Tommy made a noise, pretending to be offended, "Alright, dickhead, if I can't know where your house is then you can't know where mine is."

" _I already know where your house is, it's like right next to L'Manberg._ "

"Wrong, bitch! I made a new one, it's all far away and shit!"

" _Give me like, three hours, and I'll find it._ "

Tommy snorted, "Yeah, good luck with that. Fucking ' _human gps_ '."

" _You won't be laughing when I show at your window at three in the morning._ "

"No you fucking won't-"

"Hey, Tommy?", Dream poked his head up on the steps, "Techno's asking for the coords to your house, should I send them to him?"

There was a pause before Tommy started laughing, turning up the volume on his comm unit, "Did you seriously ask Dream to send you the coordinates after saying how you're going to find it on your own?"

Techno was quiet for a moment. " _... In my defense, it would have been funny._ "

That made Tommy and Dream start laughing.

"Alright, alright,", Tommy started once he could breath again, "I'll fucking send it. Just make sure no one sees you; they're sure to follow you, and I don't feel like dealing with any of them today."

" _I'm pretty stealthy,_ ", Techno assured, " _Been visiting Phil's house there for a while and no one's caught on yet._ "

Tommy was quiet for a few minutes.

" _You still there? You didn't send the coords, don't hang up yet._ "

"Don't tell Phil about this, Techno. I'm not exactly happy with him right now. Not really feeling the best about you either, given the fact that you've literally killed Tubbo and tried to kill me."

" _Because-_ "

" _But_ , I'd feel better talking to you than almost anyone else, even if I just pretend I'm not upset with you for like an hour."

Tommy sent the coords, hearing a distant bloop on the other side of the call.

Techno waited for a second before saying anything, sounding anxious when he did. " _I uh... ok? Guess I'll see you in like, an hour or two?_ "

"Yeah, see you when you get here." Tommy hung up, silently looking at his comm for a moment before putting a pillow over his face and sighing loudly. He flopped back onto his bed, sighing and looking up at the ceiling. "This whole thing is so fucking stupid."

Dream climbed the stairs the rest of the way, awkwardly walking over to him. "Are you... feeling any better than you did yesterday?"

Tommy glared at him, trying to look annoyed, "Define ' _better_ ', cause so far it just feels like I'm stuck in the exact same shit situation."

"Valid, I didn't really think that question through,", he paused for a second, "Do you at least feel better physically? You slept for a while."

Tommy stood back up, streching a bit to see if anything still felt off. "Mostly, I guess. Badboyhalo gave me a golden apple yesterday after he scared Fundy off, that healed most of it."

Tommy looked down and noticed his torn sleeve, about to go off about the fact that he had to fix it before remembering something. "Shit,", he said in a slight panic as he grabbed the book.

"What? What's wrong?", Dream asked, caught off guard by the sudden shift in mood.

"Fundy saw my wrist yesterday after he cut me. What the fuck is the thing called..."

"He saw your bookmark?"

"Yeah, that,", Tommy looked down at the page in front of him, "There's no way he didn't see it, he even made a fucking comment about it."

The book waited for a moment before writing, " _The fox wouldn't have noticed it if you hadn't drawn attention to it. But yes, he's seen it._ "

"I panicked, ok?! He'd just fucking cut my sleeve up and I distinctly remember being told to fucking hide it!"

" _What's done is done, not much can change that and regret gets you nowhere. He's likely to forget unless it's brought up by someone else, that issue shouldn't cause you stress for the time being._ "

Tommy sighed, only slightly relieved by the book's reassurance.

"What'd it say about it?", Dream asked.

"As long as it's not brought up around him, Fundy'll probably forget he even saw it."

The book moved a bit, bringing his attention back." _Don't tell the pig you have me, he can't know until you decide if he's an ally or enemy._ "

"Well of course I'm not going to tell fucking _Technoblade_ ,", Tommy said with an eye roll, "Brother or not, he's done enough fucked up shit lately that I wouldn't be surprised if he burned you or something just to be a dick."

"You should probably fix your shirt before he shows up, if the book doesn't want him knowing,", Dream said.

"Ugh, that's going to be so annoying. It was hard enough to make the fucking thing in the first place."

"It can't be _that_ hard to fix, it's just a little rip on the sleeve."

"' _Little_ '?! It's like, the entire fucking sleeve!"

"No it's not! It's just that little bit at the bottom!", Dream said with a bit of a laugh.

Tommy rolled his eyes, "Whatever, asshole. Do you got any string?"

One shirt repair and another hour later, and there was a knock at the door. Tommy went to answer it, peeking out the little window on the door to see Technoblade.

He openned it, seeing his brother in an entirely different outfit than the last time they'd spoken; the crown was the same, but his usual white shirt and red coat had been exchanged for a light blue attire, a red cape with a white trim draped over his shoulders, and a tall pair of boots.

"Hey, Te-"

"Why do you have one of my horses?", Techno interupted him, looking over to where he'd tied his own horse up next to Big Man Elmer.

"You just left them in a fucking _hole_ , man! I needed a way to get around."

"So why did you steal one of mine instead of just getting your own?"

"Details, Blade, details. Now come inside before one of those dickheads comes poking about."

Techno rolled his eyes as he came in, stopping when he saw Dream just awkwardly sitting in the livingroom. "Tommy, there's a strange green man on your couch."

Tommy started laughing, leaning on the wall so he didn't fall over as he cackled.

"Nice to see you too,", Dream said, trying to sound annoyed as he stiffled a laugh of his own.

Techno went over and sat on the floor oposite the little coffee table, facing the couch.

Tommy finally stopped laughing after a minute, closing the door before going over to sit on the side of the couch he'd been before his brother showed up. There was an awkward silence for a while, none of them really knowing what to say, before Tommy finally spoke first.

"So,", he started, avoiding eye contact, "I guess you get to say it, then."

Techno's floppy piglin ears twitched in confusion, "Say what?"

Tommy's hands were clenched into fists, a tight expression on his face. "That you were right; get in your fucking ' _I told you so_ ' and laugh at me for thinking that it could have worked out."

"Why would I say it when you already did?"

"Because that's what you always fucking do!", Tommy shouted suddenly, now actually looking at him, "Every time I fuck up, you and Wilbur always sit there all high and fucking mighty because the child did something wrong. You laugh because you were right and I was wrong. So let's get that over with."

Techno looked uncomfortable, he never really knew how to handle confrontation that didn't involve violence. "I'm not about to laugh at you about this just yet, I still don't exactly know what happened outside of you being exiled."

"What happened is that everyone's a massive fucking prick and I'm fucking sick of it."

"Well _yeah_ , I got that part over the phone, but you haven't really given me any details."

Tommy gave him a (mostly accurate) run-down of what'd been going on since he left and all the details leading up to the exile.

By the time he was done talking, Tommy was tightly hugging his knees to his chest and shaking slightly.

"That enough fucking information for you?", he asked, voice breaking a bit.

Techno looked down at the table in front of him silently, thinking about all of the stuff he'd just been told.

Tommy seemed to be getting agrivated by the lack of answer, opting to shout so he didn't start to cry again. "Well? Are you gonna say anything or just fucking sit there?!"

Techno stood, unclasping his cape and making his way over to stand in front of him. "I'm not gonna laugh at you for it. If you'd done something stupid and gotten thrown out all on your own; that's when I'd laugh,", he said, draping his cape around Tommy as he kneeled down to be at his eye level, "As far as I'm concerned, you've just been screwed over by the government in the exact same way as me. I'm not laughing at you for being mistreated and thrown away."

Tommy looked at him for a moment in shock, before he started crying. "Ah, shit, not again,", he said as he quickly tried to wipe the tears away, "That's- that's not what I was expecting you to say. You don't- I don't think you've ever tried to be comforting when shit like this happens."

"Been a while since I've been there for it, I guess."

Tommy grabbed the edges of the cape, pulling it closer around himself, "Yeah, I guess it has."

Techno smiled at him softly, letting out a breath through his nose. "Welcome home, Theseus." He used a hand to mess with the boy's hair a bit before walking over to the door. "I'm gonna step out for a minute, my comm has been going off non-stop."

"Go deal with that, gives me time to calm down and shit,", Tommy said, still hugging the cape around himself.

Techno nodded at him before going out.

After Techno was outside, Dream awkwardly shifted closer and placed a hand on Tommy's arm. "You alright?"

The boy nodded, looking directly ahead at the wall in front of him. "Better than I expected to be after talking to him, I'll be honest. Usually he just fucking laughs at me and tells me to deal with something by myself,", he let out a small chuckle, "Honestly, I almost wish that's what he'd done, I'd know how to handle it. I'm still not sure how much I can trust him. Even if we're in the same boat with this, I just don't fucking know."

"Trust isn't the easiest thing to fix once it's broken,", Dream said, nodding his head a bit, "But I think it's alright to give him some credit with this, at least for now. You don't have to get along with him for it, but the more people on your side the better."

"Yeah, but you saw how it went when I just ' _gave credit_ ', they all turned on me in the end,", he scowled, "As much as I hate to say it, Wil was fucking right. As soon as he realized I wasn't just going to sit there and listen, that was it; Tubbo decided it was easier to get rid of me than talk about it. He dropped me because I wasn't useful enough."

He contemplated for a moment before standing, tying the clasps of the cape meant to attatch to Techno's outfit together in a waythat made it stay around his neck.

"I'm gonna go stab some trees and shit,", Tommy declared as he went to get his almost broken iron sword.

"... Why?", Dream asked, confused by the boy's sudden decision.

"Helps me calm down, I'm starting to get angry again."

"Want me to come with in case something happens?"

Tommy waved him off, grabbing a bag and shoving the book in, "Nah. No offense but I'd rather be alone for a while."

"Got it, just send a message if you need help."

Tommy made a noise of acknowledgement at him as he walked out the door and started heading in the direction he'd been abusing the trees the day prior.

"Where are you heading off to?", he heard Techno ask from behind him.

Tommy raised a hand to wave back at him dismissively, "I'll be back in a bit, just wanted to do some thinking."

Techno let out a little grunt before calling out after him, "Don't mess up my cape!"

Tommy just kept walking away, laughing a bit. Once he got back to the small patch of trees, he started hitting one with his sword as he though about everything that'd happened for what felt like the thousandth time since yesterday.

He kept switching between sadness and anger as he tried to sort it all out.

He wanted to just be angry about all of it, act like it didn't affect him and move on, but of course it wasn't that easy. He had to have emotions and shit, had to be sad that all of this had happened.

That almost made him angrier about it.

The fact that he was crying so much, the fact that he couldn't just pretend it was all ok and let that actually _make it_ ok.

Then, there was that nagging voice in the back of his head that sounded almost like Wilbur, calling him a traitor. Saying that the fact that he'd willingly sided with Dream of all people, willingly listened to him and let him ruin everything that he'd had-

 _No_ , he though, panting after he'd ended up swiping his sword clean through the trunk of the tree as it broke, _Dream showed me the truth_.

He decided to take a bit of a break after that, flopping backwards down on the ground and looking up at the sky. He tried to catch his breath, admitting to himself that maybe he'd done a bit too much. He felt a bit better, though, having let out a good bit of his emotions.

Tommy sat up again, stretching before moving across the ground a bit so he could sit against a tree. He got the book out, setting it down on his lap.

"What's your take on all this?", he asked, waiting for the book to open on it's own.

It waited a few seconds before writing, " _Same as it is with anything else, I just watch._ "

Tommy laughed a bit at that. "' _Watching_ '? You and what fucking eyes?"

" _Watching in a metaphorical sense. How are you processing this right now?_ "

"I'm... I'm feeling a bit better over it, not one-hundred percent yet but I'll get there."

" _The wound is still fresh, it'll take time to feel completely better. The best thing to do for now is cope to the best of your ability,_ ", it paused for a moment, " _What are your thoughts on the pig?_ "

Tommy unconciously set a hand on the cape around his neck as he though about it. "I think... I can trust him, at least enough that I don't think he'll try to fucking kill me or anything. Kinda realizing it was waranted, last time,", he stopped, thinking for a second, "Well, maybe not trying to fucking _shoot_ me, but really he just did what he'd been doing the whole time. We did sort of fuck him over in the end, there."

" _He's very set in his ideals, whether that's good or bad is ultimately up to who's being asked about it._ "

Tommy laughed a bit, "Yeah, he's always been pretty fucking stubborn, hasn't he? Honestly, all four of us are."

"I _t's a learned behavior in your family, for sure._ "

He was quiet for a few minutes. "Where do I go from here?"

" _Where do you **want** to go?_"

Tommy let out a frustrated noise, leaning his head back against the tree and closing his eyes.

"I have no fucking clue! I want to go back to how it was, but that's obviously not happening any time soon. I want to talk to Tubbo but I also can't stand the fucking thought of him right now!,", he brought his hands to his face, "I also have no fucking idea if they actually want to talk to me or if I would have just been fucking executed or something. Well, maybe not executed, but they sure as hell wouldn't have just let me go if they actually got me."

He lowered his hands again and lightly hit his head against the tree as he sighed. "If I knew he'd just turn into Schlatt, I wouldn't have helped get it back to begin with," he said quietly as he just sat there with his eyes closed.

"That's a pretty long way to say you wanna take down a government."

Tommy shrieked, quickly scrambling to his feet.

Technoblade was sitting in front of him and laughing at his reaction. "What the _fuck_ , man?!"

"You were being all melodramatic, I didn't wanna just interupt."

Tommy sat back down, clearing his throat. "Yeah, alright, whatever. How long have you been sitting there?"

"Sitting here? Since you closed your eyes. In this general area? I followed you when you walked away to make sure you didn't get jumped or something."

"How the fuck would I get jumped out in the middle of the fucking woods?"

"Isn't that the _exact thing_ that happened to you yesterday?"

"No, that was at my house."

"Your house in the middle of the woods!"

Tommy laughed a bit before freezing, realizing something. "Wait a fucking second, if you've been just creeping around since I left..."

He glanced at where the book was sitting after it'd been flung from his lap, and then back at Techno.

Techno followed his line of sight for a moment before sighing. "Yes, I saw the book."

Tommy let out a nervous laugh. " _Techno_ , I can explain that."

Instead of saying anything, Techno sighed as he lifted the book from the grass. He waited for a second before throwing it at the remains of the tree that Tommy had cleaved in half earlier.

"What the _fuck_?!", Tommy screamed as he scrambled to go pick it up, "Why the fuck would you just _throw it_ like that?!"

"Not like it'll damage it,", the piglin replied with a shrug.

Tommy lifted the book up, reading what was being written out.

" _That's always a fun greeting._ "

"The hell is that supposed to mean?"

" _Hand me to him._ "

"He just fucking _launched_ you, and you want me to hand you to him?"

" _Yes._ "

Tommy looked from the book to Techno for a second before sighing and doing what it'd said. "Here, it wants me to hand it to you."

Techno grabbed the book by the edge, taking it from him. Almost immediately after it was out of the boy's grip, the book slammed closed onto Techno's hand.

"I _knew_ you were gonna do that! Let go!" Techno was trying to pull the book off using the combined effort of his free hand and feet.

Tommy was just laughing off to the side, cackling as he actually fell over. The book let go after a second, landing between the two.

Tommy sat up, a huge grin on his face, "Yeah! Karma, bitch!"

"Alright, yeah, just cause it doesn't crush _your_ fingers, that's funny."

"Damn right it is!" 

The book turned to a new page, writing out, " _That was a nice way to say hello, after so long._ "

Techno grunted and rolled his eyes, "It hasn't been that long, like four years tops."

" _That tends to be considered a long time by most._ "

Techno nudged the book with his foot. "The distinction between past, present, and fututre is only a stubbornly persisten illusion."

"Calm down over there, Socrates,", Tommy said, finally breaking his silence, "Actually, wait a fucking second-"

"Yes, I've had it before,", Techno said as he took his boot off, already rolling up his pantleg, "It's been a while, but I had it for like three years."

"When the fuck was this?! And why are you out here showing your feet off?"

"I was getting to that,", Techno said, pausing to show off the bookmark on his ankle.

"Why the fuck is yours on your leg?"

"Tactical advantage, harder to cut through boots then it is to cut through a shirt."

" _He asked for all of the information before making a bond, and refused to do so until he knew everything involved,_ ", the book explained.

"But I _tried_ to ask questions and you just went on for ages about a fucking tree."

" _That was the information **you** needed at the time, the pig is more analytical in his approach._"

Techno snorted. "The book just called you stupid."

"It did not!"

" _You may think more before acting, but the chick is more equip to handle sudden changes. You both have your strengths and weaknesses._ "

"I know that, I was just trying to bully him."

The book was still for a moment, putting Techno on alert.

"Change?"

The book sat there for another minute before writing, " _The starling and bee are on their way to the chick's house, there's likely to be confrontation. You should go back now._ "

Techno was already on his feet as Tommy quickly grabbed the book from where it'd been sitting.

"Wait a fucking second,", Tommy started, looking down at the book, "If Techno had you for a while, then that must be why you said Phil was familiar."

" _That's likely the case, however there's still something that I don't understand that makes him unpredictable._ "

"Right, best to just keep being careful about him then. Anything else to say before I put you back?"

" _Be prepared, they're likely to arrive before you._ "

"Great... I'm still not quite ready to deal with either of them, yet."

" _Apologies, I would have been able to warn you sooner if the starling wasn't involved. You could attempt to avoid it, it is ultimately up to you as the main character._ "

"That's not helping."

" _I trust your judgement._ "

Tommy didn't have anything to say to that, instead opting to just put the book away and catch up to his brother.

"-nd now you're trying to hide him! This is ridiculous!"

Tubbo's shouting could be heard up ahead as they approached the house, Tommy subconciously shrinking into the cape still around his shoulders as he and Techno walked back.

"I'm not ' _hiding_ ' him, he told me he was going out to do something and I'm just waiting here for him to get back,", Dream sounded like he was losing his patience.

As they got closer to the house, Tommy could see Dream standing in the doorway and Phil trying to hold back a very clearly angry Tubbo.

"Calm down, trying to stab him isn't going to solve anything." Phil sounded tired when he spoke.

Tubbo did too, and Tommy wouldn't have been surprised if the other boy hadn't slept the night before. Tubbo let out a frustrated scream, "This is ridiculous!"

"I agree, the fact that you're just shouting outside of my house _is_ ridiculous,", Tommy said once he felt they were close enough to be spotted in the trees.

Everyone turned to look, Tubbo going from trying to shank Dream to running toward Tommy. He had an obvious look of relief on his face.

"Tommy! I was so worried! You hadn't looked at any of my messages, I thought something had happened."

Techno took a protective step in front of Tommy, making Tubbo stop dead in his tracks.

"W-why is _Technoblade_ here?"

"None of your business. And as far as something ' _happening_ '; yeah, something did fucking happen. You kicked me out, and when you realized you fucked up you told Fundy to fucking stab me,", Tommy's voice was lined with hurt as he spoke.

"That's not what happened! Dream lied to the both of us, he's trying to drive us apart so he can get rid of L'Manberg."

"Yeah? So what if he _does_ get rid of it?"

Tubbo's eyes widened when Tommy said that, a nervous chuckle escaping him. "Surely, not. Surely you don't mean that. I know I've messed up but-"

"No, I'm serious. What good has it fucking done us?"

"You can't mean that, not after everything we've given up for it."

"No, _I'm_ the only one that's given up anything for it. Everything else was taken,", Tommy was shaking with rage as he pushed past Techno so he could walk closer to Tubbo, "That place has taken so many resources, friendships, _lives_ ; it's fucking stolen all of that from us. The only thing that's been willingly given up for it was _my fucking discs_ , something that none of you even seemed to realize when you celebrated the independance."

He was in the other boy's face now, finger poking his chest. "How can you still, after all of this shit has happened, just fucking stand there and act like it's not just a big fucking black hole that sucks up anything good that goes near it?"

Tubbo looked shocked still, not entirely believing he was hearing what was being said. "You can't mean that. Wilbur literally _died_ for-"

He was cut off by Tommy punching him in the jaw. "He died _beacuse_ of it, not for it. He fucking died because he wanted it gone. How _dare_ you try to spin that any other way,", he glared down at him, "This conversation is over, I'm going into my fucking house and you can leave." 

Tommy looked down at Tubbo for a moment before walking around him toward his house.

Phil caught his arm while he was walking past, a concerned expression on his face. "Where is all of this coming from, all of the sudden? It's only been a few days, what could Dream have possibly said to make you do a complete one-eighty on the place you and your brother built?"

Tommy looked at him for a moment before shaking his head and pulling his arm free. "It's nothing he's said to me, it's shit that's been building up for a while. Not that any of you bothered to check in on me before now."

"Because you never want to actually talk to anyone about anything, you just shout."

"Because no one would even listen if I tried to talk about it. I'm just always the one in the fucking wrong, and I'm sick of it,", Tommy said with a scowl, continuing to his house.

"Son,-"

"Tommy!", Tubbo called once Tommy made it to the door, "If you go inside that house, your exile is actually going to be real! I don't know what's gotten into you, but we can talk about it. Just come back with us and we can figure this out."

Tommy looked back at him, clearly hurt. "As far as I'm concerned, it already _was_ real. You don't get to just fucking stand there and say you want to talk about it now after all that other shit you said yesterday,", he said with a scoff before he turned back around, "Go find a new fucking toy, this one's broken."

He went inside, slamming the door behind him before sinking down against it.

He could hear Tubbo yelling at him on the other side of it, the other boy's voice getting louder as he came over and started banging on the door before one of the other people outside presumably dragged him away.

Tommy pulled Technoblade's cape tighter around himself as he listened to this, wishing he could dissapear. There was some loud arguing outside for a while longer before he heard a quick exchange of blows from some weapons and a frustrated cry from Tubbo.

A few more minutes passed, and everything seemed to have quieted down. 

There was a soft knock on the other side of the door. "Are you okay?", Technoblade asked, sounding awkward.

Tommy let out a sad chuckle. "Yeah,", he answered after a moment, his voice sounding more broken than he expected it to, "Just need a minute."

He could hear his brother sitting down on the other side of the door, both of them sitting silently for a while. "You feel like talking about it?"

Tommy shrugged, leaning his head back before remembering that Techno couldn't actually see him. "I don't know, what's there to talk about? You saw it happen."

"Well uh... how are you feeling about it, then?"

"Angry, annoyed, tired... confused, angry again."

"So your usual range or emotions, then."

"Shut the fuck up."

There was silence again for a few moments.

"Why'd you go off on Phil like that?"

Tommy scoffed, "He's always playing favorites. You probably don't notice, since it's always either you or Wil, but he only ever seems to remember I exist once I get into trouble. He has no fucking right to just suddenly show up and act like he gives a shit just because he feels like he has to clean up my fucking mess."

"He doesn't-", Techno started, cutting himself off with a little grunt, "He's not doing it intentionally. He _does_ actually care."

"Yeah, way to fucking show it."

"If you're mad at him over that, then why aren't you mad at me too?"

Tommy laughed, anger clear behind it. "Oh no, I'm _so_ fucking pissed at you. I'm so mad about so much shit that I wouldn't even have any idea where to start,", he leaned forward, resting his head and arms on his knees, "But it's not worth it, right now. Why the fuck would I try picking a fight with you when I've got all this other shit to worry about? Be a bit stupid, really."

There was a long, awkward silence for a while. He could hear his brother on the other side of the door shifting awkwardly, presumably trying to figure out what to do next.

Techno finally spoke after a few minutes. "I can... go? If you want?"

There was more silence between them, Techno standing up after a long moment without an answer.

"No,", Tommy said quickly, "Please don't leave."

He heard a quiet sigh, and the sound of Techno settling back down. "I won't, I'm right here."

"I hate you."

"I know, you say it alot."

"No, but like, I _really_ fucking hate you."

"Tommy, saying it with more words doesn't change the statement."

"Fuck you."

Tommy was still really pissed at him, but he couldn't help but feel a little better having him there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> arguably should have updated sooner, but to be fair christmas happened


	7. Chapter 7

The next few days actually went pretty well; Techno crashed on his couch, Dream left since Techno would be there if anyone tried something but he still popped in a few times and kept up with them, and Tommy was starting to feel moderately better about it all.

Various people from L'Manberg were still trying to get in contact with him, but they all eventually gave up after the first two days.

Tommy was sparring with Technoblade in his front yard when Dream suddenly popped out from a tree, startling him and making him lose the current round.

"No fair!", Tommy said as he picked his weapon back up, "That doesn't count, he scared me!"

Techno laughed at him, crossing his arms. "You just don't want it to count because you lost, learn how to pay attention."

"Fuck you, bitch!"

Dream laughed as he made his way over to them. "How long have you guys been at this?"

"Like an hour, he's actually gotten better since the last time I sparred with him,", Techno said, strapping his sword to his hip again.

"Did you just _compliment_ me?!", Tommy asked, a surprised look on his face.

"More of a statement than a compliment."

"Bullshit, you just complimented me!"

Techno rolled his eyes as the child almost vibrated with excitement.

Dream chuckled a bit as he started pulling something out of his bag. "Did you guys have anything else planned for today?"

"Was maybe gonna make a tower or something, it's actually quite boring out here."

"Oh come on, the forest actually looks decent,", Techno said with an annoyed grunt, "Can you _not_ ruin it by building some big, ugly thing out of cobblestone?"

"Cobblestone looks great, you're just too much of a bitch to realize how powerful it is."

"Well aside from that, you don't sound like you had any big ideas. So, I think I've got something you guys will find pretty cool,", Dream held up the thing he'd pulled from his bag, "I managed to get a map to a woodland mansion."

Tommy let out a little gasp before excitedly snatching the map from Dreams hands. "Where the fuck did you get this from?!"

Dream shrugged. "Just came across it at some point. I don't really have the time to do anything with it, and I remembered someone mentioning Techno trying to get a totem of undying a while ago, so I figured you guys could get more use out of it."

Techno looked at Tommy. "Do you even have enough gear to realistically handle a woodland mansion?"

"Of course!", Tommy scoffed, crossing his arms, "I've managed to scrounge a few things together."

"So what you're saying is that you've stolen stuff from people."

"... Listen, the ' _where_ ' of how I've gotten it isn't important, the point is that I have it."

Techno rolled his eyes again before grabbing the map from him, making a little shooing motion toward the house. "Go get it, then, the sooner we leave the better. This place is probably far away."

"Don't you need to get your shit too?"

Techno's response was to equip his armor almost faster than his brother could blink. "I always have mine on the ready, there's a reason I don't die."

Tommy gave him a startled look before nodding, "Yeah, fair enough. You've got to show me how to do that at some point, that was fucking insane."

Techno chuckled. "Just go get your stuff so we can go."

\---------

Dream watched as Tommy retreated back into his house, an excited little hop in his step as he went to get his gear. A few moments after the boy had gone inside, Techno crossed his arms and turned toward Dream. "So what's the catch here?"

Dream looked at him for a moment, contemplating coming up with a lie before sighing. "Yeah, figured you'd notice something was up,", Dream said as he placed a hand on the back of his neck, "I've got someone inside of L'Manberg giving me info, he said there's a group of bounty hunters coming for you."

Techno narrowed his eyes at him. "Awful nice of you to tell me that, any particular reason you're giving me a warning about it?"

"I'm guessing you still have all three lives, better to keep it that way for as long as possible, y'know?"

"Mhm."

Dream fidgeted a bit as Techno gave him a skeptical glare.

"And there's absolutely no other reason for any of this?"

Dream shook his head. "I promise there isn't, just figured you'd still want a totem, and Tommy was probably bored so-"

"Last time we spoke before all this, you were gunning for his head on a pike, why would you care if he's bored?"

Dream shrugged nervously. "He's been through alot, and he can't really go do stuff in L'Manberg so-"

"Alright, let's fucking go!", Tommy burst out of the house at that point, interupting the conversation by kicking the door open as he excitedly made his way back over.

"Hold on, let me look at what you actually have before we leave,", Techno said with a sigh, glaring at Dream for another moment before examining Tommy's armor.

The boy had a netherite chestplate, an iron helmet, and some diamond boots and pants; all of it unenchanted.

"It's not the best, but it's better than I was expecting," Techno said after a minute, "What kind of weapon do you have?"

Tommy looked to the side for a moment before pulling out an iron sword.

Dream furrowed his eyebrows in concern, "That's it? You only have an iron sword?"

"Listen, dickhead, not everyone has the time to go looking for netherite and shit."

"Tommy, we've literally been sitting around doing nothing for like three days,", Techno cut in, "It only takes like four hours max to get enough netherite for a full set."

Dream put a hand on his chin, thinking for a moment before getting his sword out and handing it to Tommy. "Here, you can borrow mine while you do this. Just don't lose it, I don't feel like having to get enough levels to enchant a new one."

Tommy looked between him and the sword for a moment, waiting to see if it was a joke or something, before he cautiously grabbed it. He looked over the enchantments, scoffing after he was done reading the sword's detail list. "Of course you named your sword ' _Nightmare_ ', you fucking edge lord,", Tommy said, waiting a moment before looking at him again, "Thank you, though, I promise I won't mess it up or anything."

Dream smiled at him before getting out an ender pearl. "Well, good luck with the mansion you two. Let me know if you get anything cool out of it."

\--------

Tommy watched as Dream pearled off into the forest, looking down again at the weapon in his hands trying to figure out why the fuck Dream just casually gave him his overpowered as all hell sword.

Techno was also watching the other man leave, his expression unreadable as he turned back to Tommy. "We should get going, I think we need to go north-east based on the map."

"You _think_?"

"Reading maps is hard, ok?"

Tommy rolled his eyes before getting the book out. "Could you tell us the coordinates of the mansion?"

" _You have a map._ "

Tommy let out a frustrated groan. "Neither of us know how to read it, though."

The book paused for a moment. " _The pig's assessment is correct, you need to go north-east._ "

He sighed before looking up at Techno for a moment, "Book says you're right about the direction."

Techno laughed a bit. "Of course I am, I'm the human gps."

"Shut the fuck up,", he looked back down at the book, "Anything else we should know before leaving?"

" _I would reccomend going east for a while before going north, if you want to avoid contact with any other characters._ "

"Right, thanks." Tommy put the book away before going over to where the horses were tied up. "Book also said we should go east first if we want to avoid people."

"Do you?", Techno asked, starting Tommy since he was somehow right behind him without making any sound.

"' _Do I_ ' what?", he responded, confused.

"Do you want to avoid people?"

Tommy thought about it for a moment. "Probably be better to, yeah? Neither of us are exactly on the best terms with most of the server."

"I mean _I'm_ not, but they'd probably be fine with you showing up."

"I don't want to talk with any of them right now,", Tommy snapped at him, mounting his horse.

"Alright, jeeze, could have just said no."

"Which direction is east?", Tommy asked, ignoring the statement.

"Where the sun is right now."

"Left or right, man? I don't feel like doing this ' _oh look at the sun_ ' bullshit."

Techno mounted his own horse, sighing as he took the lead. "Just follow me."

They travelled for a while, talking occasionally and stopping a few times because Tommy got distracted. There was also an annoying moment where they had to cross an ocean, but other than that the trip was fairly easy.

They arrived at the mansion a few hours before sundown, tying their horses up nearby as they approached the front.

"This place is fucking huge!", Tommy said as he looked at the building.

"It's not _that_ big." Tommy snorted.

"Alright mr.' _I built a sick castle a while ago and only used like one room in it_ '."

"I will stab you."

"No you won't, then you'd have to worry about taking two horses back along with all my shit."

Techno rolled his eyes before beginning to walk into the large mansion in front of them. "Whatever, let's just get this over with,", he paused for a second, looking back at Tommy, "Stay close, illigers are strong and can jump you pretty easilly if you aren't paying attention."

Tommy smirked before walking up next to him. "Can't be that bad, not with a stupid fucking name like 'illigers'."

They cautiously made their way inside, Tommy sticking close to Techno and actually doing a good job at staying quiet for a while. They went into a few of the quetionably designed rooms, not really finding much of interest outside of a few bookshelves that Tommy nabbed and like two chests that didn't contain anything of interest.

"This is all trash,", Tommy said quietly as he dug around in a chest, "Where the fuck is all the cool shit?"

"We're gonna need to kill one of the illigers to get a totem, the ones that have them are usually at the top."

"The top?!", Tommy exclaimed, only for Techno to shush him.

"Yes,", Techno said with a harsh whisper, "The top, it's only like three or four floors. And be quiet, it's only been easy so far because they don't know we're here yet. Once we get to the second floor there's probably gonna be other mobs too, so we need to be careful."

Tommy closed the chest he'd been digging through, picking Dream's sword back up as he rolled his eyes. "Like it's actually going to be difficult."

It was actually difficult, as Techno had to sheild Tommy from an exploding creeper in a strange, dark room that contained a large statue of a cat. This made a hole into the room above, and finally alerted the illigers to the fact that they were there.

"Holy shit!", Tommy yelled as he dodged some weird ghost things the one illiger summoned.

"Be careful!", Techno said to him as he dodged attacks aimed at him, "The evoker's the one that has the totem!"

"Which one is the fucking evoker?!"

Techno switched from his axe to his sword, pushing back two illigers that were invading his personal space. "The one making the vexes!"

Tommy dodged another ghost, shrieking as he was now taking damage from a fucking mouth in the floor. "You mean these annoying fucking ghosts?"

"Yes, what else would I be talking about?!"

"I don't know, there's alot of shit happening right now!"

Despite the fact that he had mostly not terrible armor, he was having to keep eating gapples Techno had given him earlier to counteract the massive amounts of damage he was taking from the combination of the evoker's attacks and the normal mobs that were littered around in the dark.

"It's targeting you, you gotta attack it!"

"No shit! Kinda hard to do when I'm being fucking swarmed by everything else!"

Tommy regained his balance before setting his sights on the evoker and charging at it. He managed to back it into a corner, killing it in a few hits with Dreams sword. "Got it!", he yelled as he collected the totem, going to help Techno deal with the illigers attacking him.

Once they were all dealt with, he handed the totem over and lifted his hands into the air in celebration. "Yeah! Did you fucking see that?!", he grabbed Techno's sleeve, jumping up and down a bit, "Holy shit that was so cool! I actually fucking killed the magic fucker that had the totem!"

Techno chuckled a bit, detatching the child from his sleeve. "Yeah, good job,", he looked out the window, "We should start heading back, the sun's almost down."

Their horse ride back was mostly Tommy yelling about how cool he was, combined with them dodging the mobs that had started spawning after the sun went down.

Techno gave up on telling Tommy to be quieter about two hours into their trip, deciding it was better to just let the child get his boasting out while they were still far enough away that no one would hear him. They got back a little bit before midnight, Tommy struggling to stay awake on the back of his horse as they got closer.

Techno was in the lead, and put his hand out to signal for him to stop when they were almost there.

Tommy looked over at him with an annoyed scowl. "Why the fuck are we stopping? I just wanna go to bed, man!"

"Get off your horse,", Techno instructed quietly, getting off his own mount and getting out his sword.

Tommy was immediately more awake, doing as he was told and following Techno's lead as he got his own weapon out and they stalked closer.

Once they were at the edge of the trees, he saw what had made Techno stop. There was a crater where his front door had been, a decently sized hole where in it's stead.

Ignoring all previous caution, Tommy made a frustrated noise as he quickly walked over to his damaged house. "What the fuck?! Who the fuck blew up my house?!"

Techno sighed as he came over to stand next to him, smacking him on the back of the head. "Whoever it was isn't here anymore, something I was _checking_ for before you just ran out like an idiot."

"Well excuse me,", Tommy made a wide gesturing motion with his arms at the damage, "but my house has been blown up!"

"I'll go grab the horses before they wander off, go make sure the rest of your house is still intact."

Tommy looked at him for a moment, ready to say something before changing his mind and letting out a tired sigh. "Yeah, ok big man."

Techno turned to go get the horses, and Tommy patched up the ground a bit before going inside to assess any damages in there. Everything looked fine at first, but when he got to his chest room, he noticed a very distinct lack of any chests; another hole blown into the ground in there.

He growled as he punched the wall, infuriated. All of the stuff that had been in there was gone, some of it probably stolen when the rest had been destroyed. He shifted his focus to his comm, ready to go off on someone but not actually having any idea who to start yelling at.

He noticed that despite the fact that it was nearly midnight, Quackity, Fundy, and Tubbo were all in vc2.

He joined it, ignoring any attempted greetings as he started questioning them. "Who the fuck did it?"

" _D-did what?_ ", Tubbo nervously stuttered out.

"You fucking know." He didn't actually know if they knew or not, but he was going to act like it until he figured out who did.

" _No, we don't, you just came in and started yelling at us,_ ", Fundy said, sounding like he was trying to be annoyed but also coming off as nervous.

"Someone blew up the front of my fucking house and destroyed all of my chests,", he said flatly in response.

" _... Weird. Hey, hasn't Dream done that to you before?_ ", Fundy responded a bit too quickly.

Tommy sat there quietly for a few seconds, hearing the ping of someone joining the call but not actually seeing anyone new in the name list. "Quackity,", he said after a moment, drawing attention to the currently silent fourth member of the call.

It took a few seconds for him to say anything. " _Y-yeah?_ "

"You've been awfully fucking quiet since I joined."

" _O-oh, yeah,_ ", Quackity stammered out, " _I'm just- I'm just working on El Rapids, y'know? Just- just been working on that._ "

"Mhm,", Tommy had wandered back out into his livingroom by this point, plopping down on his couch, "Why are you all stuttery and shit?"

" _I'm- uh,_ "

" _He's just tired!_ ", Tubbo finished for him, " _You gotta remember it's like midnight, man._ "

"Yeah, it's like midnight and the three of you were just in a vc. Ok."

Fundy scoffed. " _Look, what do you want from us here? We don't know who blew your shit up, again **probably** Dream, and you just come in here after ignoring us for almost a week and yell at us!_"

Tommy slammed his fist down on the couch next to him. "I'm yelling because it was obviously one of you bastards! You're trying to blame Dream for it; first of all you're shit at lying, second the fact that you did it in the first place is-"

" _We didn't do it!_ ", Tubbo interupted him, " _Tommy, I can promise you that no one from L'Manberg messed with your house. Maybe it wasn't Dream, necessarilly, but it had to have been someone from the smp._ "

" _M-maybe Technoblade did it!_ ", Quackity added.

Fundy made a noise in agreement. " _True! He's been hanging around lately, hasn't he?_ "

"He was with me, all day."

" _O-oh,_ ", Tubbo managed to get out after a moment, " _Well, it's late, how about we handle this in the morning?_ "

Tommy laughed, sounding more hurt than anything else. "Y'know what? Fine. I'm too fucking tired to sit here and listen to you lie to me for the millionth time. I left for a fucking reason, you assholes going out of your way to do shit to me is just confirming it."

" _But we didn't-_ "

"Shut up, it's late and I'm tired, but this isn't over. And trust me when I say this, but you just fucked up."

He left the call before any of them could say anything else, angrilly staring at the wall in front of him. He jumped in his seat when he felt a hand on his shoulder, calming down when he realized it was just Techno.

"You ok? I've been trying to get your attention for a while."

Tommy shook his head, bitterly looking down at his comm. "No, but I know what fucking happened now."

He was about to elaborate before his comm went off, a call coming from Dream. He answered, putting it on speaker.

" _Hey, are you ok? I scummed into the vc like halfway through, what happened?_ "

"What happened is that those fucks blew my shit up while we were out and tried to blame you."

Dream sounded like he was running on the other end. " _Are you safe? Are you hurt or anything? Is your house still there?_ "

"Yeah, I'm fine. They just blew up the door and my chests. More angry than anything else."

There was an audible noise of relief from Dream, Tommy could hear him slowing down and catching his breath. " _That's good, at least. Do you need somewhere else to stay for the night, or are is it an easy fix?_ "

Tommy looked over at the hole in his wall that was once a door. "Probably alright, just need to patch it up a bit."

Techno snorted. "Where would you even have him stay at, Dream? Do you even have a house?"

" _What kind of question is that? Of course I have a house!_ "

"Actually, wait, do you have a house? I've never seen it,", Tommy said after thinking for a moment.

" _ **Yes** , I have a house,_", Dream said, sounding defensive, " _It's really big and has a bunch of chests and stuff in it._ "

Tommy and Techno both started chuckling.

"It was believable before that last bit!", Techno said between laughs.

" _I have a house!_ "

"Homeless Dream, mans owns the smp can't even build a house! He starts and then his brain just goes all ' _dodododo_ ' and he needs to go make a nether portal,", Tommy added.

" _Why are we even talking about this?_ "

"Cause it's funny, bitch!"

Dream scoffed on the other end. " _Ugh, whatever. At least you're alright, that was my main worry. How'd the mansion thing go?_ "

The conversation shifted to how the day had went prior to the house stuff; Tommy boasting about how he'd killed the evoker as he fixed the hole in his wall and going off on a tangent about some dolphins he saw.

Dream showed up a little while later, out of breath from running the whole way.

"Don't you usually use ender pearls and shit to get here?", Tommy asked as Dream sat on the couch with him and Techno.

"I traded the last of the pearls I had with Sapnap in exchange for him getting in on Mexican L'Manberg or whatever so I can keep track of it. I was gonna go get some more and then I saw the vc,", Dream explained after a few seconds.

They all sat there silently for a while, not really sure how to progress. Growing anxious with the lack of noise, Tommy waited a little bit longer before sighing and pulling the book out.

Dream and Techno both tensed, looking between eachother and Tommy.

It took him a second to notice their shifts in demeanor, wrinkling his nose in a mixture in annoyance and confusion when he looked at them. "The fuck is wrong with you two?"

"You kinda just pulled out the thing that's supposed to stay a secret from like, _everyone_ in front of Dream,", Techno said to him quietly.

"He already knows about it, he had it before me."

Techno let out a little grunt, his piglin ears twitching. "Really?"

"Wait, when'd you tell Techno about it?", Dream asked, shifting awkwardly in his seat.

Tommy rolled his eyes as he openned the book, not looking at either of them. "You've both got a stupidly large number of lives you could waste, is that a good enough explaination for you?"

Dream seemed to calm down a bit, but Techno was still tense beside him. "And that's just something you told him, no hesitation?", Techno asked Dream, sending him a suspicious glare.

Dream moved his mask slightly so Techno could see him roll his eyes. "I can show you my bookmark if you think I'm lying."

"Guys-", Tommy tried to say something, getting cut off by Techno.

"I'm not calling you a liar, but I'm worried what kinda habits you've been teaching him if you're that loose lipped about something like this."

"You don't have to follow what the book tells you religiously, and it's not like we've been going around advertising the fact that he has it."

"It's really-"

"Ok, but it's still dangerous that _anyone_ knows he has it. What if they slip-"

Techno was interupted by the book slamming closed a few times. Tommy let out a sigh, sending a grateful glance at the book for shutting them up. "I've been careful about it. I know how important it is to keep the book a secret, I'm not a fucking idiot,", Tommy said, glaring at Techno.

"You're saying that, but do you even know what'd happen if a hunter found out you have it? You literally got it like a week ago, do you really wanna lose it that quickly?"

The book flipped a few pages around, drawing their attention down to it. " _The chick has been responsible about this. Remember that it's ultimately his decision who he tells and who he doesn't._ "

Techno grunted in frustration. "I'm not saying he's being stupid with it, I'm saying that other people are stupid and one of them might accidentally say something about it."

" _That bridge can be burned after he crosses it._ "

Tommy pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a frustrated noise. "Listen, you can fight about this later. It's late, I'm tired, I want to go to fucking bed but I _can't_ until we figure this shit out,", he turned his attention to the book, "Which one of those fuckers did it and how do we deal with it?"

" _The duck and the fox did it. As for what you do, that's up to you._ "

"They exiled you for messing with Geroge's house,", Dream said, looking at him, "You did way less damage with that than what they did."

Tommy shifted uncomfortably. "Well, they didn't do that much. It's even, really."

Techno let out a single chuckle. "They literally destroyed all of you stuff, Tommy."

"Not to mention the fact that _I_ told you to mess with George's stuff, they just did this to you because what; they were upset you wanted them to treat you with respect? They want you to keep being their little weapon on stand-by if something happens?"

"I'm...", Tommy looked down at the book, not seeing any new words as he contemplated the situation, "Everything is still processing, if I'm honest. I know they're a bunch of wrong-un's, and I'm extremely pissed at them all for so much shit. But... I'm also actually finding it hard to hate them. I'm mad, definately, but not really at them; just what they've done, I guess."

"Well, no one said you had to hate them, Tommy,", Dream said, putting a hand on Tommy's shoulder, "You can still care about someone but want them to treat you right. And while I don't really agree with the idea that they deserve forgiveness, it's up to you how you treat them. If you just want them to say sorry and mean it, you can get that and stop there. But if you want them to actually treat you right, you need to put your foot down and show them that they can't be biased about stuff like this."

"I hate agreeing with Dream, but he's right. If you don't step up and tell them off, they're gonna think it's ok to treat you like trash,", Techno said, putting his hand on Tommy's other shoulder.

Tommy clenched his hands into fists under the book. "... What's your idea, then?"

"It's the same issue as how it looked with you; the acting vice president of L'Manberg just went into smp lands and greifed a house. The only difference is that George is king, but you can say I got involved because they tried to blame me if you don't want them saying anything about you taking my side. Same crime, same punishment; walls go back up and whichever one of them did it goes on probation or gets exiled."

Tommy was silent.

"I know everything is crazy lately, but they can't get away with this. All the stuff they've been doing lately is just going to lead everyone down an even worse path than where Schlatt was heading with it."

Tommy said something quietly, a bit too quiet for them to hear.

Techno adjusted a bit so that instead of having his hand on Tommy's shoulder, his whole arm was resting there. "Gonna need to say that a bit louder, Tommy."

"I said what if I don't care if they know I'm siding with you?"

Dream let out a little hum. "I'm just worried that if you do change your mind later after we've made our point, they'll be more upset about it if they know you actively picked a side."

"Let them be, then. I- I'm- honestly the more I think about this, the more I realize how fucking stupid this has all been. They lied to me, the book confirmed that, they lied right to my god damn face after destroying my shit out of nowhere. I have a reason to be upset, and they've just gone and proven again that I can't trust them anymore."

Tommy looked over at Dream, a mix of defeat and determination somehow occupying his face at the same time.

"It hurts me so much to say this, but maybe L'Manberg needs to stay an unfinished symphony. All it does it hurt people, and I know I said this to Tubbo; I meant it when I said L'Manberg is a black hole that sucks up anything good. It's taken so much, no one seems to understand when to walk the fuck away and understand when it's too much."

Techno nodded in agreement. "Sunk cost fallacy. You put so much in, hoping it'll get better, and you use the justification of what you've already put in to keep wasting more and more on something because _surely_ the universe will give it back eventually. But that's not how it works, the universe just takes and it's the people's job to fight back and grab what they can. Their job to realize when something is a lost cause and get out of the pit so they can start climbing again."

Tommy looked at Techno. "Do you always have to be the one to cram the most words into a fucking sentence in any given conversation?"

"I was agreeing with you!"

"Use less words, you're just speaking in sounds."

"That's- Tommy do you understand how verbal communication works?"

Tommy yawned. "You just speak and shit."

Dream took his hand off of Tommy's shoulder finally. "I think it might be better for you to go to bed at this point, it's past midnight and alot happened today. We can firgure out everything else tomorrow."

"I think I should probably head back to my house for now,", Techno said, standing, "Based on some information I got earlier in the day, it's better for me to take care of some stuff I was planning on doing there."

Tommy rolled his eyes, yawning again. "Are you gonna go do that shit with turtles or whatever you mentioned before?"

"Yeah, I think it's probably better to get that done sooner rather than later."

Tommy also stood, giving Techno a hug without really thinking about it before stumbling over to his stairs and up towards his bedroom. "Send me the coordinates or whatever at some point, I'm going to bed."

He didn't linger to hear if anyone said anything before going the rest of the way up, falling down on his bed and almost immediately passing out once his head hit the pillow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> forgive me for how much more time it's taking me to work on this now than it did when i started, the artblock started hitting again and i gotta be in a certain type of mood to be able to write
> 
> ALSO gonna say this since someone mentioned it in last chapter's comments; if you draw something for this P L E A S E link it to me in the comments. I'll put it in the notes of whatever chapter it's for. or if it's just for this in general I'll plonk it at the top of the next new chapter after you put it!
> 
> and again, thanks for all le support :3 <3 !!!


	8. Chapter 8

Tommy dragged himself out of bed and went downstairs at some point around noon the next day, giving a Dream a small nod of acknowledgement as he walked past him to make some food. A few minutes later he was in the livingroom, him and Dream sitting in a comfortable silence while the boy ate.

"So, have you decided if you definately want to go through with punishing them like how I suggested?", Dream asked after a bit. He had his mask off and feet propped up on the coffee table.

"I think... I think it's a good idea,", Tommy replied, "But I want to help."

"What do you mean?"

"I want to help put up the walls again,", he said plainly after swallowing a mouthfull of food.

Dream furrowed his brow. "Are you sure? You don't have to."

"I want to, though. They decided they wanted to destroy my shit; well I've decided I want to help fuck with them for it." He paused for a moment before leaning his head back and letting out a frustrated noise. "Aw, man, I gotta go out and mine and shit again; all my stuff got blown up!"

"What was in the chests they destroyed?"

Tommy thought for a moment. "There was a fair bit of iron, alot of cobble, I think I left a few emerald blocks in but I've got some in my enderchest, there were some golden apples in there somewhere I think; really just alot of shit that I'm gonna have to go get more of."

"Want any help with that?"

Tommy shook his head. "Nah, gives me something to do. I understand what Techno was complaining about now; being out in the middle of nowhere is fucking boring."

"Yeah, being away from other people can get pretty bad after a while,", Dream said with a bit of a chuckle, "You said you don't need any help with mining, but would you be cool with me coming with you? I need to get a bit more obsidion for the wall."

"Jesus, man, how much are you planning on us putting up?"

Dream shrugged. "I wanted it to be two thick this time, plus I gave Sam a few stacks for something he was doing so either way I need more."

Tommy gave a nervous nod. "Right..."

"Remember, before it was just for show. This time they _actually_ did something wrong, the wall is actually meant to keep them in,", Dream put a hand on his chin, "I was also thinking of taking it underground, too, and going to bedrock so it's hard for them to just mine out. But that'd take way too much time and obsidion."

"I'm still feeling a bit weird about all of this, if I'm honest. The longer it goes the more I start regretting even going with this in the first place,", Tommy sighed, continuing before Dream could say anything, "But just because you leave the door closed doesn't mean the basement ain't flooded. Gotta deal with this shit as it comes."

"True. Nice analogy, by the way."

"Nice _what_?"

"Analogy, it means comparing something to something else; the basement thing you just said was an analogy."

"... Thanks? I guess? I just kinda came up with that on the spot, thought it sounded cool."

Dream laughed. "It's a habit you pick up with the book, I think."

"Aw, am I gonna start speaking in riddles and shit?"

"I thought you _wanted_ to be all cryptic and cool?"

"Yeah, but I still want to be able to speak english."

They talked for a bit longer before getting some things together and making a small mine a bit away in the forest. Tommy let out a frustrated sigh after digging in a straight line for upwards of thrity minutes without finding anything.

"Can't I just fucking use the book to find diamonds and shit?", he asked, raising his arm so Dream could hear him through the comm with less of an echo. They were on a call since Dream was just down there for obsidion and it was easier to split up.

" _What? No, that's the same as using x-ray hacks._ "

"But this is taking so long!"

" _Didn't you say you needed more cobblestone anyways?_ "

"Yeah, but I'd like to find something else too before my inventory is completely full."

" _Deal with it, you have like all day. We can't really place the walls until tonight anyways._ "

"Well I know that, but this just feels like I'm wasting time,", Tommy said as he got the book out of his bag.

Dream scoffed, and Tommy could practically hear the man rolling his eyes. " _Dig in a different direction, then, I don't know what you expect me to do about this._ "

Tommy muted his mic, openning the book up to about where it'd been last time he'd spoken to it; something he'd been getting more accurate lately. "Where do I dig so I can find a cave or something?"

It waited a second before responding with, " _Dig left and up slightly and there's a ravine._ "

"Thank you."

The book paused for a moment. " _He's done this before, as well._ "

"Wait, really?", he unmuted himself, "You're a god damn hypocrite, bitch!"

Dream groaned. " _Did the book actually snitch?_ "

"Damn right it did, caught!"

" _Whatever, I could just hang up on you._ "

"Do it, bitch, then you'd be mining in silence too."

" _Yeah, but I'm used to that._ "

Tommy was digging in the direction he'd been told, making a small noise of satisfaction when he dug into the ravine he'd been promised. "Pog, a whole ass ravine!"

" _Really? No comment on my sad reveal that I usually do my mining alone?_ "

"Well _I'm_ not the one threatening to hang up, you're stuck with my shining personality until you can't handle it anymore!"

" _Hmm... I don't know if I'd use ' **shining** ' to describe it._"

"Fuck off, man!"

Dream laughed a bit. " _I'm kidding, I'm kidding. It's been fun hanging out with you again and not just shouting at eachother._ "

Tommy paused when he heard that, lowering his pickaxe and looking at the ore in front of him as he processed what'd just been said to him.

" _Tommy? You still there?_ "

"... Thanks, I've been having fun hanging out with you again as well,", he said quietly, almost hoping Dream wouldn't hear it.

Conversation continued from there, both of them just talking about something random when they thought of it or complaining about their own task at the moment. Honestly, Tommy was having a hard time remebering the last time he enjoyed something as tedious as a mining trip. It seemed that lately everything had been about getting things for everyone as a whole, or at least that was the job they'd give him; spend hours mining for diamons and iron only to give most of it over to the greater collective that was Pogtopia.

Or L'Manberg, at that point. Things had been happening so quickly he was still having issues thinking of the two separately. It'd only been a month since they'd dealt with Schlatt; checking his comm he realized that it'd been that amount of time exactly, weird how it felt like no time had passed at all.

Once he'd gotten what he considered a decent amount of supplies, he made a quick trip back up to his house to set some stuff to smelt before going to help Dream gather obsidion.

By the time they went back up to the surface again, they'd managed to get a collective of sixteen stacks; bringing their total amount to a neat twenty-five.

They were idly chatting out front of Tommy's house, the sun just setting, as Dream's comm started going off rapidly.

"Woah, what's the deal with that?"

"I don't know,", Dream said as he lifted it, openning his messages and starting to scroll through, "Wait, shit, yes I do." He ran a hand through his hair, shifting his mask from the side of his head to the front so it covered his entire face. "Do you still have my sword on you?"

"Oh, shit, yeah. Sorry about that, completely forgot about it." Tommy handed him back his sword, nervously shifting his weight between his feet. "What's going on, big man? You're making me a bit nervous here."

Dream was quickly messaging someone, his stance obviously tense as he was switching between things on his comm. "Ask the book what you should know about it, I don't want to stress you out about this if I don't have to."

Tommy let out a humorless chuckle as he got the book out. "Yeah, like you saying shit like _that_ isn't going to stress me the fuck out."

The book shifted in his hands, openning and writing, " _The duck, bee, and fox have decided to bring the pig to L'Manberg for what they deem to be justice for his crimes. The enderman is tagging along as well._ "

"The fuck do you mean by ' _justice_ '?"

" _They plan to drop an anvil on him._ "

Tommy let out a shocked gasp. "But he's been staying away from them! What business do they have dragging him back to L'Manberg just to fucking execute him?"

" _A mixture of revenge and jealousy; it depends on which member of their little ' **army** ' you ask._"

Tommy looked up at Dream, who was still frantically messing around with his comm. "What the fuck do we do about them?"

"According to my informant, they're basically at his house and getting ready to confront him. That means we've got like an hour to prep for what we do next."

"Ok, but what do we do next? How the fuck do they even know where he is?! We need to warn him and-"

"From what I know, they stole a lodestone compass from Philza that points there,", Dream interupted him, "Phil's definately warned him about it, what we need to do is figure out how to help him."

"Yeah, yeah, ok, fuck-", Tommy looked back down at the book, "What's happening with them right now?"

The book was still for a moment. " _They're going to instigate a fight and use his horse to threaten him and strip him of his items. Once he's brought back, he'll be thrown into a cage._ "

"Alright, but they won't hurt him before that, right?"

" _They won't be able to, that's why they're going to use the horse as leverage._ "

"What happens after he's in the cage?"

" _Spoilers, that's where whatever you two decide to do will take place._ "

"Don't you fucking dare hit me with a ' _spoilers_ ' on this! Tell me what we need to fucking do!"

" _What do you want?_ "

"That's pretty fucking obvious, I think."

The book was silent again for a moment. " _Then it's obvious what you should do._ "

"You-" 

"Tommy,", Dream placed a hand on his shoulder, "Arguing with the book just wastes time, if it's not telling you what to do then it trusts whatever you have in mind."

"But I don't have anything in mind! I don't know how to handle the fact that these assholes are dragging Techno back to L'Manberg to pull a fucking _JSchlatt_!"

"You prepare the best you can and follow what your instincts tell you in the moment, then. Here,", Dream gently grabbed the book from Tommy's grip, holding it so they could both read it still, "We can't know what we need to do, but what do we do to get ready?"

" _I would reccomend I either be left here or carried by the chameleon. He has better experience keeping me hidden in combat situations._ "

"Are we going to be fighting them?", Tommy asked, sounding anxious.

" _There's a high likelyhood of it, yes, but not every potential branch contains it._ "

"Thank you,", Dream closed the book, somehow managing to shove it into the front pocket of his hoodie without it actually looking like there was an entire fucking book stuck in there, "So we know we need to get ready for a fight, that's enough information to plan from there. Bad and Ant said they'd be up for helping get Techno out of there, Punz is definately going to help, so we just need to keep the L'Manberg people busy til he's gone."

Tommy looked at the ground in front of him, an unsure expression on his face.

Dream nudged him, dragging him from his thoughts. "Hey, it'll be fine. We already know they can't hurt him, that's why they're pulling something cheap and kidnapping him. It's three V five, we've got this."

Tommy wrinkled his nose. "Wait, isn't Ranboo with them too?"

Dream laughed a bit. "We don't have to worry about him too much, he won't actually try fighting us."

"And how the fuck do you know that?"

"After the stuff with you happened, he had a talk with me and we worked a few things out." Dream's comm went off, and he checked the new set of messages. "Speaking of Ranboo, he says they've got him and they're on their way back. Get what you think you need for a fight together, we need to get moving if we want to get there before they can do anything."

"Not sure if you know this, but this _is_ what I have, like I could probably craft a new fucking sword or something real quick but-"

"Then craft the sword, we need to get moving."

"Right, ok, right-"

"Go, it's gonna be the full distance since I still don't have any pearls."

Tommy took a deep breath and nodded. "I think I have a few, I'll check while I'm in there."

"Just be quick."

"Right."

After Tommy got the few things he actually had that could help him, they started moving. They decided it'd be faster for Tommy to take his horse, giving Dream the few ender pearls he'd had in his ender chest so he could go at least slightly faster than if he was on foot.

He left Big Man Elmer in the community house, Dream catching up as he was tying the horse up, and they ran the rest of the way to L'Manberg in time to see Quackity and Tubbo forcing Techno into a small cage on a stage with a simplistic redstone mechanism set up next to it.

Dream and Tommy hid behind a poster, and they could see Punz, Badboyhalo and Antfrost on a rooftop nearby as well; all of them just watching what was transpiring.

Philza was also watching from his balcony, some weird enchanted boots on his feet and concern evident on his face.

Techno was looking calm from his cage, all things considered. "This isn't much of a trial, don't I get to defend myself?"

"No, this isn't a trial; it's a fucking execution,", Quackity responded, sounding rather pissed off.

"That's kinda unfair, don't you think?"

"Fuck off, you're getting what you deserve,", Quackity looked over at Tubbo, "Let's get this going, Mr. President."

Tubbo nodded as Quackity went to sit in the audeince that consisted of just him, Fundy, and Ranboo.

Tubbo cleared his throat before speaking, his voice the only thing ringing out in the silent night air of the town. "Technoblade, you're here to face punishment for your crimes against this great nation on November sixteenth. You don't deserve a trial, you've proven yourself to be more than guilty."

"So what; you get to be judge, jury, and executioner? Isn't there some sort of law against that?"

"Like you care about laws."

"I don't have to care about laws, I'm an anarchist. You're a president, you're supposed to follow those."

"I _am_ following our laws, and they find you guilty of treason. Above you is an anvil, and this lever over here will drop it onto you and kill you."

Techno snorted, his piglin ears pinned back slightly. "Can't beat me in a fight, so you just lock me in a cage like an animal and squish me?"

"You _are_ an animal,", Quackity said from the crowd, getting up and walking over to the cage with a smirk, "You're a god damn animal and you're getting what you deserve."

"No, he isn't." 

Everyone turned to look at Tommy, now standing in the open with his sword drawn. "He's not an animal, he's my brother. And I'm taking him with me."

" _No_ , you aren't. This is L'Manberg business, and you don't have any place to interfere,", Fundy said, standing from his seat and kitting himself out.

Tommy shook his head. "As much as I would love to give you a chance to try to fucking kill me again Fundy, I'm not here for that. Let Techno go and we can all leave without losing any lives."

"Tommy,", Tubbo was trying to sound official, but the underlying nervousnes was there, "Let me remind you that Technoblade was a main factor in the destruction of our nation. You've made it clear that you have no interest in being a part of L'Manberg, that also means you get no part in this decision. He needs to pay for what he did, and there's nothing you can do about that."

"Bullshit there isn't,", Tommy started walking closer to the stage, "The fuck kind of country do you want to run where someone who isn't even a fucking citizen can get dragged in against their will and shoved in a cage without a trial? How is this any different from what Schlatt did to you?"

" _Shut up_! What the fuck is wrong with you?! You know what Technoblade did, we all do! He doesn't have a right to a trial-"

"And why do you get to decide that?"

Tubbo glared at him. "Because I'm the president. I'm the president and if I say he deserves to be executed, then he deserves to be executed."

"Right, because you're the _president_ ,", Tommy's tone was flat, "Because that gives you all the power you could ever need to be a massive prick and make bad decisions. Also gives you the right to choose favorites and let one person get away with something that got the previous vice president exiled."

"The thing with your house has nothing to do with this!,", Quackity said, "Look, man, I'm sorry about that. It was an accident, ok? But what Technoblade did was no fucking accident, he spawned some fucking _withers_! How can you stand there trying to defend him for that?"

"I'm not trying to defend him, but you just locking him up and treating him like shit isn't warranted."

"If you aren't defending him, just let us fucking kill him."

Tommy shook his head again, a dissapointed look on his face. "This isn't getting us anywhere,", he turned in the direction he knew the others were hiding, raising his voice slightly so they knew he was talking to them, "Let's put an end to this."

In a matter of seconds, the area was full of fighting; everything happening in a flash. Punz was placing TNT that was being broken almost immediately, Bad and Ant attacking Fundy and Tubbo, and Tommy could see Dream going in the direction Techno's horse had been stashed.

Quackity managed to get away from his own fight, running straight for the lever that would release the anvil. "I'm killing this fucking Pig!"

" _No_!"

Tommy didn't have time to think, placing some blocks so he could get above Techno's cage just in time to take the majority of the damage. He looked foreward, not actually hearing anything around him as he made eye contact with a confused Ghostbur before the anvil came into contact with him and demolished all of his hearts.

Tommy sat up in his bed with a start, putting a hand to his chest as he tried to calm his breathing and ignore the phantom pain in his back.

He pulled his knees to his chest, letting out a laugh at the fact that he still _was_ breathing, that the book giving him more lives was true and not just some lie. He looked at his hands, his hands that were the colour they'd always been and not some sickly gray that matched his brother's.

He stood, the motion happening a bit too quickly and resulting in him falling backwards onto his bed again, and he laughed the entire time. It took him a few minutes to really process the fact that he was still there, the fact that he hadn't just accidentally thrown his last life away protecting Techno.

 _Wouldn't have been throwing it away_ , really, he thought to himself, _As long as Techno gets out ok_.

He got up again, slowly this time, and made his way downstairs so he could wait for Dream to get back.

Surprisingly, Techno got there before Dream; the only thing alerting Tommy to his presence was the door opening before he was suddenly scooped up into a tight hug.

"Hey, what the fuck man?!"

Techno pulled him closer, letting out a shakey breath. "I realized I never actually saw your bookmark, I didn't know if you just actually killed yourself or not."

Tommy sat there for a moment, guilt immediately flooding him as he finally returned the hug. "Ah, yeah I guess that _could_ cause you to be a bit upset, maybe. Be a shame if the world missed out on all the great shit I have in store for it."

Techno laughed a bit, the tension he previously held evaportating as he confirmed to himself that his little brother was still there. After sitting there like that for a few more minutes, Techno leaned back and proceeded to flick Tommy in the nose.

"Ow, what the hell man?! We were having a moment!"

"You just wasted a life for nothing, I had the totem on me."

Tommy let out an offened scoff. "How the fuck was I supposed to know that?! All the book said was that they took your shit, I figured that meant all of it!"

Techno stared at him for a moment, seemingly about to say something before something else clicked in his head and he let out a sigh. "They have literally all my stuff."

"But you're wearing some armor right now?"

"This is Quackity's; he chased after me and I shoved a pickaxe through his teeth."

"O-oh, did you kill him or-"

"Oh yeah, no, he's dead. I have no idea how many lives he has left at this point."

They just kinda sat there awkwardly for a moment, until Tommy heard his door open again.

"Hey, Dream! How's the aftermath-", Tommy stopped talking as he turned to see Ghostbur standing in the doorway.

" _Oh, hello Techno and not-Tommy,_ ", Ghostbur said with a little wave.

"The fuck do you mean ' _ **not** -Tommy_'?"

Ghostbur gave him a little smile and a nod. " _Oh, well, you look like Tommy and you act like him but you don't **feel** like Tommy; so you're the not-Tommy!_"

Tommy stood up off the couch, walking over to where Ghostbur had let himself in.

"What about me doesn't ' _feel_ ' right? What the fuck does that even mean?"

Ghostbur put a hand to his chin, looking Tommy over. " _Hmm... Well, you just have this..._ ", he shuddered a bit, " _ **Funk** about you, it's scary; like Techno and Dream. Tommy isn't scary. Also your sleeves are a different colour._"

Tommy crossed his arms. "I've always been scary, it's called being a big man!"

"That's wrong, but this is actually Tommy, Ghostbur,", Techno said, now suddenly beside Tommy and causing the boy to startle.

"Jesus fucking christ, Techno, if you keep doing that I'm gonna end up losing another life,", Tommy looked back at his dead brother, "But see, even Techno knows it's me. You're just being all weird and ghosty again."

Ghostbur gave him a sort-of sideways look, contemplating something. " _Hmm... if you say so, not-Tommy!_ "

Tommy brought his hands to his face and let out a frustrated groan. "Oh my god, what the fuck do I have to do to convince you that it's me you transparent son of a bitch?!"

" _Say more stuff like that, that's more like Tommy!_ ", Ghostbur said with a bit of a giggle.

Tommy reached out and grabbed his brother by the face, trying to ignore the shudder the lack of heat sent down his spine as he shook him. "I'll swear a whole lot more at you if you don't stop acting all weird and shit!"

Techno put a hand on Tommy's shoulder, sighing. "I don't think that's something he's capable of, Tommy,", he looked over at Ghostbur, who was recovering from being shaken like a small child, "Where's your sheep at?"

" _Oh, you mean friend? I left him with Phil, he seemed really sad over something._ " 

All the colour left Tommy's face when he heard that, placing his hand over his mouth as he suddenly felt really sick. Techno steadied him, concern etched into his features, and it took a few moments for Tommy to be able to speak again.

"Phil thinks I- he-", he took a few shallow breaths, none of them helping him, "He thinks I just lost my last fucking life."

He was moving before he really thought about it, pushing past Ghostbur as he rushed out of the house. Techno caught up with him quickly, grabbing him from behind and lifting him up; his arms pinned to his sides.

"Let me go, I have to go let him know I'm alright!"

"Slow down, at this rate you're gonna just hyperventilate and pass out in the forest. Just calm down and focus on breathing, alright?"

Tommy wanted to fight with him because how could _breathing_ be important when his dad thought he just fucking died, but he did what he was told; calming down and matching his breaths up to Techno's.

After a few minutes of this he was finally set down, Techno turning him around so they faced eachother. "We can send him a message. He can't come here right now and it's not a good idea for us to go there, but at least he'll know you're ok."

"Why can't he come here?"

Techno let out a frustrated grunt. "They found out he was helping me with some stuff and put some boots on him that don't let him go certain places without Tubbo."

"How the fuck does that even work?"

"Plot convenience, mostly, but it means that he's stuck until we can figure out a way to save him."

Tommy looked down at his comm. "How do I even go about explaining this to him?"

"You don't have to explain it, just say you weren't actually on your last life before. Not that hard to lie about it, honestly."

"I still don't... Should I really be lying to him about something like this?"

Techno shrugged, his expression back to his usual neutral. "It's really up to you, but the book's always been pretty weird about him so I've always just avoided it."

Tommy placed his hands over his face and let out a frustrated scream. "This is so fucking stupid! I can't even ask the bloody thing what to do about this either, Dream has it."

"Why didn't you keep it with _you_?!"

"It said not to!"

"Wait the-,", Techno's face went between several emotions in the span of a second, settling on anger, "The book said he had to be the one to hold it?"

"Yeah? Said he was better at fighting while holding it."

"So then- Wait so it knew,", Techno said, placing a hand on his chin as he thought.

Tommy looked at him in confusion. "The fuck do you mean ' _it knew_ '?"

"I _mean_ ; the book knew you were going to use a life, Tommy, that was it's plan."

"It fucking _what_? Pretty sure I would have been told if that were the case."

"If you were the one holding the book, everyone would have seen it when you died. The book made sure you gave it to Dream so that wouldn't happen,", Techno explained, "So it's got to have some kind of plan based around that."

"I have absolutely no idea what the fuck you're on about."

"It means that we need to wait for Dream to get back here before you do literally anything. Have you messaged Phil yet?"

"No, I'm still trying to figure out the best way to tell him that I didn't just fucking die forever."

"Then wait, talk to the book about it first."

Tommy sputtered a bit, looking up from his comm at his brother. "You want me to fucking _wait_ when he thinks I just fucking **_died_**??? You realize how devistated he must be?!"

"I know, and I really don't want him to have to deal with that, but if the book has this planned out-"

"I don't give a single fuck about that stupid fucking book. If it has some sort of big, complicated plan then it should have clued me in on it,", Tommy said as he openned up their father's contact and just pressed the call button.

It only rang for a second before Phil immediately answered. " _Tommy?_ "

"... Hey, Phil."

There was silence for a moment before Phil's voice practically exploded from the comm. " _Tommy, what the **fuck**?! I thought you only had one life left?_"

"Ok, so I thought I did but uh- I think the one didn't actually count?"

" _... How the fuck can you die in a way that doesn't count?_ "

"Um..."

He had a point, and Tommy really didn't think too far ahead beyond letting him know he was still around.

"I don't think I actually died in one of the times I thought I did?"

" _The fuck do you mean?!_ "

"I... Yeah, yeah, the one time I thought I died but I didn't actually wake up in the bed I'd last slept in, just in the forest near where it happened."

Phil was silent for a long stretch of time, making Tommy nervous.

" _And you're sure that's what happened?_ ", Phil asked after a while.

"I mean, if I was sure then I wouldn't have thought I was on the last one before in the first place. It's all I've got to work with here, give me a break."

" _No, no I'm- honestly I'm just happy you're still alive. Like christ, dude, I was seriously ready to see your ghost pop up soon and I wasn't sure if I could handle that._ "

It was Tommy's turn to be silent that time, just looking down at his wrist.

" _Mate? You still there?_ "

"I'm sorry,", Tommy said, quietly, "I'm sorry I made you think you'd have to go through that again."

" _It's alright, just don't do it again,_ ", Phil said with a halfhearted chuckled.

"Right,", Tommy paused for a moment, "Don't let anyone else know I called you, please, I want to talk to Dream about this first."

" _... So about Dream._ "

"What about him?"

" _Be careful with him, he's shady as fuck and I don't think it's a good idea to trust him as much as you have been. Techno told me about how you've been hanging around him, and it's great you two are finally getting along after all the shit you talked about in your letters, but there's something to do with him that just... it's just off._ "

Tommy raised an eyebrow, his guilt being slowly replaced with skepticism. "The fuck does that mean?"

" _When I talked to him a few weeks ago when shit went south, he said something that had some... concerning things attatched to it. If it's what I think then you need to be careful._ "

"And what do you ' _think_ ' it is?", Tommy asked, sounding only slightly less annoyed than he felt.

" _Just some bad shit, dude. I really can't explain any more than that._ "

"I'm not just some little fucking kid anymore, y'know. Why the fuck do I have to just listen to you if you aren't giving me an actual reason to avoid him?"

" _I'm just looking out for you-_ "

"Fat load of fucking good that's done me so far, eh? I'm not trying to be ungreatful here or anything, but I really don't think it's your place to tell me who to hang out with at this point. I only called so you knew I was alright, beyond that I'm still pretty pissed off."

" _I wasn't trying to upset you, I just-_ "

"Oh, we are well beyond the point of upset, _Philza Minecraft_ , ' _upset_ ' was passed like a month ago. At this point I'm just fucking tired,", he moved his hand so his finger hovered over the end call button, "I'll talk to Dream about helping get you out of house arrest, still don't understand how the fuck that works, beyond that I still don't really feel like talking to you."

" _Tommy-_ "

He was cut off by the call ending, a tired huff escaping Tommy as he lowered his arm again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok ok ok so i know that after like a month only like 5500 words is nothing, but in my defense i wasn't lying in the comment where i said i've been distracted by writing a feral raccooninnit story.
> 
> that story will go up at some point eventually as well [hopefully] but its turned into more than it was and i want to post it all at once.
> 
> But hey, here's this for now! Been working on both, and I finished this chapter before the other thing so I'm gonna just yonk this up now.
> 
> Again, sorry it took so long!
> 
> oh, also also also; i saw that Chaotic_Bitch linked me in the notes of their story (is very good) 'through the grape vine', so i thought i'd do the same!
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/28370715/chapters/69512775
> 
> it's a tommy runs away story where ya boi goes to live with a bunch of animals and heal and then fakes amnesia (still gotta read chapter 8 when i'm writing this but i love what i've read so far)


	9. Chapter 9

Despite feeling considerably more annoyed at his father than he already had, Tommy couldn't help but feel just a little bit better knowing that Phil no longer thought that yet another one of his sons had lost their last life. He looked around, spotting Techno talking to Ghostbur in the doorway of the house and walking over to them.

"- can't tell anyone about it still,", Techno said in a low whisper.

Ghostbur was also whispering, though his tone wasn't as serious as Technoblade's. " _But before you only said I couldn't because it was yours._ "

"Well now it's because it's Tommy's. You just need to keep quiet about it."

" _But why can't Phil know?_ "

Tommy scrunched his face in confusion as he got closer and heard snippets of their conversation. "What are you two talking about?"

Techno straightened his back, turning around to look at him. "Don't worry about it."

" _He was telling me I couldn't tell Phil that **you** have the scary book now!_"

"Wilbur knows about the book?"

Techno let out a sigh, bringing a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "He stole it from me when I'd only had it for like a year and made me explain to him why I had a book full of gibberish before he told Phil about it."

Tommy made an offended noise. "How come he got to know about it but I didn't?"

"It wasn't exactly by choice! I was kinda stuck with the option of either telling him about it or telling him _and_ Phil when I didn't want anyone knowing."

"Don't wanna hear it; Wilbur is my favorite brother again."

" _Yay, the not-Tommy thinks I'm better!_ "

"Wait, when did I become the favorite?"

"Doesn't matter, 'cause you ain't anymore."

Tommy and Techno tensed at the sound of a horse approaching, only Tommy calming down when they saw that it was only Dream on Tommy's horse.

"Pog, you brought my horse back!", Tommy said as Dream dismounted the horse.

"It was the fastest way to get back since I'm still out of pearls."

"Oh, yeah, we should really go get that sorted at some point,", Tommy said as he approached him, "Could you give me the book? I need to check something."

"Sure, here,", Dream said, pulling the book out from his hoodie and handing it to him.

Tommy grabbed it, ready to start asking questions, when he was caught off guard by a quick hug from Dream.

The man ruffled his hair as he took a step back. "I hope you're alright after all of that, especially losing your first life with the admin hearts. It's pretty scary when you die for a third time and don't actually know if you're going to wake up or not."

Tommy stood there for a second, thinking about what'd just been said to him. "I- Yeah, I guess it was pretty fucking weird respawning for a third time in my life. I'll manage, I think."

"Right, remember that I'm here if you need to talk about it,", Dream said with a nod.

Tommy nodded back at him. "Thanks, big man."

Dream walked past him to where Techno and Ghostbur were, leaving the boy alone with the book.

He stood there for a moment, his brain having to catch up with everything for the ump-teenth time that day, before openning the book. "Alright, what's changed now that all that shit's gone down?"

" _Straight to the point, I see,_ ", the book responded.

"Don't try to be sassy, today's been a fucking mess."

" _It was an eventful branch, to be sure,_ ", the book agreed, pausing for a moment, " _In regards to your death, everyone aside from the starling, cat, demon, and dog believes you lost your last life; present company excluded._ "

"Alright, what's that mean for us at this point?"

The book paused. " _You have several options, however there's two that cause the most impact; either you go through with your original plan to punish them for their transgressions- telling them the excuse you gave the starling as to why you've survived, or you ignore that and keep them ignorant of you._ "

Tommy looked down at the page, contemplating. "... And which one of these would bring us closer to the best ending or whatever?"

" _They both can lead there, however the first one will likely bring change around quicker._ "

"Right... I'd rather the first one then, probably, given the fact that Quackity actually fucking admitted to it,", his grip on the book tightened, anger lacing his features, "Not to mention the shit they tried to pull with Techno. This isn't just about me anymore, they've crossed a fucking line."

" _Let the chameleon know what you've decided, he'll help as much as possible._ "

"I will in a minute,", Tommy said, looking over to where Techno and Dream were talking, "Techno said you knew that was going to happen."

The book turned to the next page. " _You already knew that._ "

"You told me you can see what _might_ happen, not that you know for sure."

" _That's still the truth, but if there's a common thread amongst branches it's reasonable to assume what the outcome will be._ "

"So you knew I was going to use a life? And you didn't tell me?!", Tommy asked, a bit of offense in his tone.

" _Would you have gone in if you knew that would happen?_ "

"I would have gone about it differently! Techno had a fucking totem, if you'd actually told me that, I wouldn't have panicked like that."

" _What's happened has happened; the story is in motion. Regret is a part of life, trying to go back solves nothing,_ ", the book paused for a moment, " _I will apologize for not informing you about the totem, a good portion of potential branches had him unable to utilize it so I thought it best to leave it out._ "

Tommy read the words on the page, an unsure expression on his face. "That's- Still, you should have told me about it."

" _I will keep it in mind for the future._ "

His grip on the book tightened again. "Guess I can't really do anything else about that now, huh? I'm still pissed at you, you're just not as high up on the shit list as everyone else."

" _Understandable._ "

He let out an angry sigh, closing the book and going over to where the others were standing.

They spent the rest of the evening discussing and planning their next moves. Techno went back to his own house a few hours in (Ghostbur following him); wanting to fix some of the damages caused by the ' _Butcher Army_ ', and also wanting to find a more secure place to keep his horse so they couldn't use him as leverage again. By midnight, they had a solid plan ready to be put into motion the next day.

"Looks good,", Dream said, looking up from the paper they'd written out, "I'll focus on getting some of the supplies tonight so we can get started as soon as possible."

"Sounds good, I'm ready to tear shit up,", Tommy said with a yawn.

"You won't be tearing up anything before you get some sleep, it's late."

"Saying shit like that makes you sound like an old man."

Dream laughed, standing and stretching. "What? How does that make me sound _old_?"

"I dunno, just sounds like something Phil would say,", Tommy said, yawning again, "And why do I have to go get sleep when you're gonna be going out and doing shit?"

"Because you haven't had the book long enough for the stamina thing to really be in effect yet."

"... The _what_?"

"The stamina thing, there's no way it didn't tell you about the physical stuff."

Tommy tired to think back over all the information the book had dumped on him when he first got it. "It probably did, I'll admit I skimmed through most of the shit it told me after the first like two hours of just fucking reading."

Dream looked at him for a moment before sighing and sitting back down. "The longer you have the book the stronger the effects, but the book will give you different buffs and stuff; like with potions or being around a beacon, but it's a permanent thing changed in your body."

"That's- How the fuck does it do that?", Tommy asked, sounding uneasy.

Dream shrugged, "No idea. It's a magic book, I doubt there is any explaination for most of the stuff it can do."

"Ok, and what else does it do? Cause you've just told me it's going to change something in my fucking body and that doesn't exactly sound like something I'd be alright with."

"It's not bad, I promise. It just makes it so you can stay awake for longer and get stronger easier."

"... So it's like fucking steroids or something? Is there fucking book steroids?"

"What? No,", Dream said, laughing, "It's just- it's magic, I don't know. It's not bad or anything, I promise."

Tommy looked down at the table. "Makes sense, I guess... Suppose that explains why Technoblade can go weeks without sleeping; it's some stupid book bullshit."

"You really need to go back and read through the stuff you skimmed at some point, it's important."

"Why would I do that when I can just wait for you to tell me?"

Dream reached across the table and flicked him in the forehead. "Because some of that stuff probably isn't gonna come up before you need to know it, and if you aren't ready it's gonna cause you issues."

Tommy waived his hand dismissively, standing. "I'll get around to it eventually, surely, not really any time to be doing that right now, anyways."

"I'm serious, I don't want something to happen to you."

Tommy stretched, rolling his eyes. "It'll be fine, not like there's exactly room for anything to go wrong when we've got all this other shit to worry about."

Dream sighed. "Alright, I'm trusting you here. Go get some rest, I'll see you in the morning."

"I'm not-", Tommy started interupting himself with a yawn, "I'm not tired, but _fine_ ; only because it'll make tommorow get here faster."

He dragged himself upstairs, plopping down on his bed and falling asleep a while later after he heard Dream leave.

~-~-~

"How the fuck are you here?"

Fundy was the first one to break the silence as the L'Manberg cabinet stared in confusion at Dream and Tommy.

"Wow, thanks for your concerns after you fuckers literally _killed_ me,", Tommy said, his arms crossed.

"No but you-", Tubbo swallowed a lump in his throat, looking like he was about to cry, "You only had one life left, and you-"

"Turns out I had two, what a surprise."

"No, there's no fucking way,", Fundy said, his ears pinned back and his tail bristled, "I know for a fact you only had one life left."

"If you're that sure of it, then why were you so eager to just kill me a couple weeks ago? Really sheds some fucking light on a few things."

"I wasn't going to kill you! I was-"

Tommy took a step foreward. "Oh yeah, cause swinging around an axe at someone with no armor really screams ' _peaceful talk_ ' doesn't it?"

"That's not-"

"Alright, enough," Tubbo said, raising his voice, "Look, I'm just happy Tommy's ok. Can we get to the issue Dream called this meeting for instead of just shouting at eachother, please?"

"He-", Tommy started, getting cut off by Dream placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Tubbo's right, we should get to the issue at hand."

Tommy looked at him for a moment before sighing, taking a step back so he was next to Dream again.

"So, what'd you want to discuss? Because going off what you said, I have a feeling this is about more than just letting us know Tommy is still alive,", Tubbo said.

Dream adjusted his mask slightly, making sure it was covering his entire face. "L'Manberg is being punished, for real this time."

"Jeez big man, just getting right to the point aren't you?", Tommy said with a chuckle as he watched the L'Manbergians all tense.

"No point beating around the bush." 

Tubbo tried his best to appear official, despite his nerves skyrocketing. "C-Could you tell us what it is we're being punished for?"

"At first, it was just for destroying Tommy's stuff-"

"That wasn't us, though, maybe he let a creeper in somehow?"

"Quackity admitted to it, yesterday,", Tommy said, his gaze locked on the duck in question.

"I- Well,", Quackity stammered a bit, "It was us, yeah, fine. But it really was an accident, we didn't mean to set it off like that."

"It's the same thing you had Tommy do though, isn't it?", Fundy said, rolling his eyes, "Why does it matter?"

"Because I _told_ Tommy to do that, you just did it,", Dream placed a hand on his chin, "Now, let's think back to what was deemed a suitable punishment for the vice-president destroying a house outside of L'Manberg?"

Fundy bared his teeth. "That's not why you were upset before. You were pissy before because it was your little side hoe's house."

"Tubbo, you might want to control the furry, I think he might have rabbies,", Tommy said, trying not to look as smug as he felt.

Fundy growled at him, causing Dream to take a step in front of the boy.

Tubbo put a hand on Fundy's shoulder, a concerned look on his face. "Please, calm down; for right now, at least,", he turned his attention back to Dream, "Are you suggesting we exile Quackity?"

"That was the plan, at first,", Dream said as he pulled out a piece of paper, "But then yesterday happened. Looking at all of the things your government has been up to, we've decided to give you a choice."

"And who's ' _we_ '?", Quackity asked, his eyes narrowed.

Tommy cleared his throat. "Who the fuck do you think?"

"W- _Tommy_! You can't just leave L'Manberg to start working with _**Dream**_ of all people!", Quackity said, sounding exasperated.

Dream crossed his arms. "He can do what he wants, he's not in charge of a country. You, however-"

"Let's back up a bit here, you said you're giving us a choice on something,", Tubbo said, sounding anxious.

"Right. Seeing as how you've all abused your power several times, we're giving you three options,", Dream handed Tubbo the paper he'd pulled out earlier, the younger boy reading over it as Dream talked, "The first one is that you just abandon L'Manberg and go do something else with your time; just leave it here as a historical site or something and go off to do something else."

Fundy crossed his arms. "That's not fucking happening, L'Manberg is our home."

"Second option is that you can all stay, keep your roles and all that, but the obsidion walls go back up,", Dream glanced at Tommy for a second before turning his attention back to Tubbo, "Now, I'm not going to trap you all in like I said I would before, but anything relating to L'Manberg stays inside. You go out, you aren't in charge of a country anymore; you're just a normal member of the server. That also means all of your business stays inside the walls, no repeats of yesterday."

Tubbo balled his fists under the table. "And the third option?"

"If you don't want to accept either of the other options,", Dream shifted his mask so they could see one of his eyes, "Then L'Manberg is gone, right down to the bedrock. It'll look like a chunk error."

Tubbo stared at Dream in shock for a moment before shifting his gaze to Tommy. "And you're just- _ok_ with him threatening us like this? You helped him come up with this?"

Dream fixed his mask so it was over his face again. "He-"

"No, you shut up, I want to hear Tommy say it."

Dream raised his hands in a defensive way. "Alright, jeez, no need to snap like that,", he put a hand on Tommy's shoulder, "Go ahead, since he doesn't believe me."

Tommy looked between Dream and Tubbo for a moment before sighing, locking eyes with his former best friend. "Yeah, I did help with it. You're taking shit too far, and honestly I'm sick and fucking tired of it. You don't get to play favorites and you absolutely don't get pull the type of shit you have been."

Tubbo made an offended noise. "And what type of shit have I been doing that warrants any of this?"

"You want a fucking list? How about we start with you dragging Techno here to give him a public execution?"

"He deserved it! He's a-"

"I know, a ' _traitor_ '. Y'know, locking someone in a cage and calling them a traitor before killing them is awfully fucking familliar-"

"How the fuck can you even think something like that, let alone say it?!", Tubbo yelled, standing from his chair.

"Because it's true! History is just repeating itself and none of you seem to even realize it! This place is fucking cursed, and until it's gone none of us will be happy."

"I don't know what's happened to you, but you've changed,", Tubbo crumpled the paper of options up in his fist, "We're not accepting any of these ' _options_ ' you've given us. As far as I'm concerned we've done nothing to warrant this extreme of a punishment. This meeting is over, please get the fuck out of my country."

"Oh my fucking god, you're seriously-"

"No, Tommy, let's not overstep for now,", Dream said, sounding calm.

"Dream, you can't be serious-"

"It's just for now,", he looked over at Tubbo, "I'll give you a week to think it over; let you have some time to calm down and actually think on it. I'll be back for your answer then."

"Leave,", Tubbo practically hissed at them as he said it.

Dream nodded at him, turning and walking over to the door. Tommy looked like he had more he wanted to say, but just sighed before he followed Dream out of the building. He checked the time on his comm, scoffing as he trailed closely behind Dream. "That felt alot fucking quicker than it was."

"Yeah, that's usually what meetings like that feel like. Any word on how the break-out efforts are going?"

"Checking that now,", Tommy said as he openned some new messages from Techno, "Said they've just resorted to breaking the boots or whatever; couldn't get the fucking things off. That's from like fifteen minutes ago, though, so no clue how that's going for them."

They reached the boarder of L'Manberg, and Dream turned around to look at him. "Are you doing alright after that meeting?"

"Why the fuck do you always ask if I'm alright after shit happens? It's annoying."

"I've been asking because it's alot to deal with, and I'd imagine it's even harder considering who it is you're fighting with."

Tommy folded his arms. "I'm a big man, this shit can't bother me."

"If you say so,", Dream placed a hand on the top of Tommy's head, messing with his hair, "I'm here if you need to vent or anything though, remember that."

Tommy looked to the side, an annoyed expression on his face even though he made no effort to move away from the contact. "Yeah, whatever. What other shit on our list are we tackling today?"

"Well, I spent last night getting more obsidion, so I was thinking we could probably go get more ender pearls today."

Tommy made an annoyed noise. "Are we seriously just gonna spend the day looking for endermen to kill?"

"We could trade for some instead, I'm sure someone'd be happy to let us use a villager."

That someone ended up being Techno, letting them use the villagers in his basement in exchange for some golden apples. He wasn't back yet when they first arrived, giving Tommy hope that he'd be able to avoid confrontation from Phil.

No such luck occured, as his older brother and father showed up not too long after they did.

Tommy stood awkwardly in the corner as Dream traded with the villagers, wishing he'd just stayed in his house as he avoided eye contact with Phil.

Techno, choosing to ignore the obvious tension in the room, sat on the ender chest next to Tommy. "So, how'd the meeting go?"

"About as well as we thought it would,", Tommy shrugged, "Dream's giving them a fucking _week_ \- honestly that's too much time in my opinion but whatever, but he's given them a week to decide what they want to do before we get to do anything."

"And what are you doing?", Phil asked, his wings tucked against his back.

Tommy scoffed at him. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"I would, that's why I asked." "Fucking smartass,", Tommy muttered as he folded he arms.

Techno let out a laugh. "We had to get it from somewhere."

"Nah, only thing I got from him is a cool as fuck vocabulary."

"I don't think ' _cool_ ' is a very accurate word to use, Tommy,", Dream said as he came back over to where everyone else was, handing Tommy a few stacks of enderpearls.

"Oh, like you're one to talk, you're not cool either."

Dream made a noise in mock offense. "How dare you suggest I'm not cool; I'm hurt."

"Good, suffer." Tommy laughed as Dream pretended to cry, stopping when he noticed the daggers Phil was glaring at the man. "What the fuck is your problem, eh?"

Phil raised his hands in a defensive gesture. "Nothing, mate, just watching you... interact."

"You looked like you were about to fucking stab him or something."

"Well I wouldn't pass up the opporitunity,", Phil muttered with a humorless chuckle.

Tommy glared at his father for a moment before walking over to him, his arms crossed. "What the fuck is your problem? He's been helping me out a whole lot more this past like month than you've even _tried_ to in a long time."

Phil hid the hurt he felt at that statement as he tried to pick his words carefully. "And you're acting like all the stuff he did before just didn't happen; what about all that shit you and Wil talked about in your letters?"

"He-!", Tommy cut himself off before he started yelling, reeling his emotions back in a bit, "He had reasons for it. It's some stupid fucking reasons, but I'm not about to blame him for it."

"He's the reason Wil-"

"No, he isn't! He's not the reason _anything_ involving Wilbur happened. He had his own issues, if anything Techno has more fucking blame for him losing his mind than Dream,", Tommy glared at Phil, "And last I checked, Dream wasn't the one that ran a sword through his chest."

Techno came over and stood between the two to try and de-escalate the situation before it got any worse, his discomfort clear on his face. "That wasn't his fault, and you know that. Wilbur asked him to-"

"So he just fucking does it?! If I walked in like ' _hey, kill me lol_ ', would you just stab me?"

"That isn't the same."

Dream came over and placed a hand on Tommy's shoulder. "Calm down, you have a right to be upset but yelling isn't gonna help at the moment. Let's head out for now, we have what we needed."

Tommy looked back at him for a moment, fuming. He turned to glare at Phil and Techno for another moment before scoffing and jerking himself away from Dream's hand, using the ladder to exit without saying anything else. He made sure to look at Techno's enderman before leaving, just to annoy his brother, and slammed the door on his way out.

Tommy stormed off as soon as he was outside, going past the mountain and walking into the forest.

He was buzzing with emotions, pissed off at pretty much everyone and everything and ready to lash out. Everything was really catching up to him at that point; Techno's ' _execution_ ', his third death, the meeting- really, the confrontation with Phil was just what sent him over the edge. He started running as he thought about it all, not really paying attention to his surroundings until he ran into something tall that was distinctly _not a tree_.

Falling over with whatever it was he'd run into, it took him a few moments to collect himself and actually realize what was going on around him.

Tommy scrambled to his feet, grabbing his sword as he focussed on what exactly he'd run into. The ' _what_ ' was actually a who, as Ranboo was sitting dazed in the snow.

"What the fuck are you doing out here?", Tommy asked, his sword raised to the enderman hybrid.

Ranboo looked at him, fear evident on his face as he raised his hands defensively and scooted back. "Woah, wait a second! I'm just trying to find Techno's house, I could have sworn it was around here; unless I wrote the coords wrong..."

"And why are you trying to find him?"

"Well not really _him_... I have some of his stuff and I was kinda hoping to leave it in a chest or something?"

Tommy lowered his sword, crossing his arms. "Mhm. You're trying to give him his stuff back, the stuff that you helped take when you help capture him?"

Ranboo raised his hands in front of him again, guilt seeping into his expression. "I didn't really have a choice with that. They just dragged me along last minute, I swear."

"Ok, but either way you're on L'Manberg's side, you realize how they'll react if they find out you're willingly giving Technoblade his stuff back?"

Ranboo finally stood off the ground, brushing the snow off himself. "I'm on the side of people, not a country. I have no issues with Techno, and what they did to you guys was wrong."

"And how do I know you're not just lying so you can try trapping him again?"

"Because he's not stupid."

Tommy jumped at the voice suddenly behind him, whipping around to see his brother standing there; an extra cloak folded over his arm.

Techno walked over next to Tommy, throwing the cloak at him before crossing his arms. "At least he doesn't _look_ stupid enough to try something like that twice."

Ranboo once again raised his hands up in front of him, shaking his head. "I'm not, I promise. I managed to get my hands on a few of your things, but Tubbo has most of it still."

He set Techno's things on the ground in front of him, careful with his movements so he didn't invoke an attack or anything. Like he'd said, he didn't have much; just the helmet and sword. He took a few steps back once the items were out of his posession, awkwardly standing against a tree.

Techno never took his eyes off the enderman as he retrieved the items, checking the enchants to make sure they were actually his.

Tommy watched the exchange in silence, the cloak now around him as he shivered slightly; he hadn't realized how cold he actually was before he put it on, which made sense since he was out in the frozen tundra in what was basically just a t-shirt and shorts. He still wasn't entirely sure of what to make of Ranboo, at least in terms of trust.

From the few times they'd interacted (most of them relating to the ' _exile_ '), he seemed alright, even wanting to take the blame for the situation with George's house even though he wasn't even in on the plan. Plus, if Dream's words were to be believed, Ranboo was also the one that gave them a heads-up the day before about the execution.

Tommy gradually zoned out as he thought about it again, anger flaring up as he stood there.

He was staring down at the ground, repeatedly making his hands into fists and releasing them as he went over it all. Angry tears were running down his cheeks, and he felt ready to storm back to L'Manberg just to punch Tubbo in the face and ask what he was even thinking.

He wanted to do that to all of them, really, because there's _no way_ it was just the president's decision.

Quackity seemed especially eager to kill his brother, there was no way he didn't have a say in it. And then, there was the meeting-

"- _mmy_. Tommy, calm down."

Tommy blinked a few times, noticing that his brother was standing in front of him now with his hands on his shoulders. He let out a breath that he'd appearantly been holding, gasping for air a few times as he tried to figure out what'd happened.

Techno looked uncomfortable as he carefully held his shoulders, an unsure expression on his face. "You alright? You weren't responding for a while."

Tommy looked at him for a moment before propperly snapping back to reality, pulling backwards and quickly wiping the leftover tears from his face. " _Fuck_ \- Yeah, yes I'm alright. I- I'm-", he tried to think of an excuse for what just happened, coming up short.

"It's ok if you need a minute, I'm not going anywhere."

"... Yeah, ok."

He looked around, trying to find something else to focus on instead of his spiralling thoughts. He noticed a lack of Ranboo in the near vacinity, about to voice his confusion when Techno seemed to sense what he was going to ask and answered the question before he was even able to say anything.

"I told Ranboo to go back before someone noticed he was gone, then I noticed you standing there having a crisis."

"It wasn't a ' _crisis_ '! I was just thinking about all the stupid shit that's been happening..."

"So a crisis."

"Fuck off!"

They continued to bicker as Technoblade slung an arm around his brother's shoulders, gently leading him back in the direction of the house.

As they approached, Tommy noticed Dream leaning against the side of the porch, messing with his comm unit. His head seemed to perk up when he heard them approaching, immediately closing what he was doing and walking over to meet them halfway.

"Are you ok? Did you get hurt or anything? Why-"

Tommy waived his hand dismissively, actively pretending it wasn't painfully obvious he'd been crying less than fifteen minutes ago. "I'm fine, was just thinking about shit..." 

Dream hugged him, letting out a sigh of relief. "I was worried, Phil wouldn't let me go after you."

Tommy tensed slightly hearing that, a new bout of sadness showing on his face. "Yeah... that doesn't surprise me,", he said, slowly returning the hug, "What the hell did you even do to make him hate you that much?"

It was Dream's turn to tense that time, awkwardly clearing his throat when he noticed Techno raising an eyebrow at him. "I reminded him of... something he doesn't actually know anything about. He's trying to pin blame on me for stuff other people have done so he doesn't have to take responsibility for how he's been acting."

"What the fuck does that even mean?"

Dream finally pulled back from the hug, shaking his head. "Don't worry about it, it's his problem not ours. We should head back so we can get something done before it starts getting dark."

Tommy looked at him for a moment before sighing. "Yeah, I'm ready to go build some shit and forget about this for a while."

He went to take the cloak off so he could give it back to Techno, only for his brother to stop him.

"Keep it for now, I'll just get it back from you later."

"You never let me borrow your stuff long term, big man."

Techno shrugged as he started going up the steps. "Not like it's gonna be that long before we see eachother again, I trust you enough to not mess it up."

"R-right, see you later then, Tech,", Tommy said as he gently grabbed the edge of the cloak, a warm feeling in his chest after his brother said he trusted him.

The piglin raised a hand to wave, not turning back before he went inside his house again.

Dream put a hand on Tommy's shoulder and squeezed before walking in the direction of the portal. "Let's get going, protective measures don't build themselves."

Tommy looked at his brother's house for a moment longer before nodding, turning to follow Dream. "Yeah, I'm coming."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM SORRY I TOOK SO LONG AGAIN HHH IM JUST DUMB AND HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO WRITE ENOUGH
> 
> im also sorry this isn't super long after the wait, i know i said it last time but i swear ill be here with either another chapter or the feral raccon boi story way sooner than this is coming
> 
> otherwise thamk you for reading, thanks for the kudos, and especially thank you for comments! they fuel me.


	10. Chapter 10

The rest of that day was spent building some aesthetically questionable cobblestone walls around Tommy's house, a layer of obsidion in the center to make sure it was actually able to provide protection. By the time the sun was going down, they'd basically finished; just needing to set up a propper door so that there wasn't just an easilly accessible hole in it.

The next few days ended up being uneventful, a mix of lazing around, getting gear, or training; Tommy finally seeing first-hand the effects from the book. He was going on 23 hours without sleep and he was easilly able to stand his ground against Dream for about ten minutes at a time before being knocked down.

Dream offered him a hand, laughing as he put his sword away. "How'd you even manage to lose that time?"

Tommy glared at him for a moment before taking his hand, standing and brushing himself off. "Shut up, I was doing pretty alright before you decided to aim for my fucking legs."

"We're practicing for _war_ , they're not going to follow any rules with it."

"We don't know that there's gonna be another war, they haven't given you an answer yet,", Tommy said, folding his arms.

"Tommy, you saw how they responded when we told them their options; do you really think they're choosing either of the peaceful ones?"

"They- Well we don't know that they're choosing war either, they've still got like three days."

Dream sighed, taking his mask off. "You need to prepare for every possible factor if you want to win; you can't just hope the thing you want happens and come up with something when it doesn't."

"If it doesn't, there's still a chance they just fuck off."

"I'm honestly surprised you still have some kind of faith in them after everything they've done to you."

"I...", Tommy looked to the side, poorly hidden grief on his face, "Honestly, I don't. I'm just tired, and the idea of another war is- Honestly I'm not sure I'd be alright after that."

Dream held out a golden apple to him. "You don't have to get involved, y'know. I'm pretty sure without you they're gonna lose no matter how many people they have on their side."

"Yeah,", Tommy said with a scoff, taking the apple, "You're acting like I'm some kind of secret weapon. Not sure if you noticed but I was one of the worst fighters durring the other battles."

"Your skill level isn't what makes you win,", Dream placed a hand on his shoulder, "You're the only one that's able to rally them all together. You gave them hope; you made them think they had a chance no matter how low the odds actually were. They can't function without you there, that ' _butcher_ ' thing was more than enough proof of that."

Tommy glanced at the apple in his hand, looking to the side before turning away from Dream. "Let's talk about something else."

Dream stared at his back for a moment before shaking his head, checking his comm. "I need to meet up with someone, so I'm gonna be gone for a bit."

"Alright... how long?"

"Not too long, I wanted to talk to Sam about making something for me. It's just supposed be concept talks right now, maybe picking a place for it- Should be back some time tonight."

Tommy looked back at him over his shoulder, interest peaked. "And what is ' _it_ '?"

Dream placed a hand on the back of his neck. "Just- It's something I wanted to have as a precaution."

"You're not going to tell me, are you?", Tommy said with a mix of annoyance and dissapointment.

Dream just shrugged. "Hey, I can't keep being mysterious if I tell you everything, what kind of ' _supervillain_ ' would I be if I did that?"

"Usually, it's the villain that can't seem to keep their mouth shut."

"Pff, whatever,", Dream said, clipping his mask back on, "Let me know if anything happens, I'll be back as fast as I can if you need any help."

Tommy turned back away from him, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, whatever; not like anything interesting happens around here anymore." 

He spent the next few hours resting, just laying on top of his wall. At first he was trying to get the book to spill about what Dream was up to, but five ' _spoilers_ ' later and he just settled on trying to take a nap.

Said nap being interupted by a rock getting thrown at him from the ground below. He blinked a few times, confused.

Another rock hit him though, reminding him of where he was. "Aww, what the hell, man?"

He grabbed one of the rocks that'd been tossed at him, looking over the edge to see who'd chucked it.

" _Eyyy_ , Thomas!"

Quackity and Fundy were on the ground below, Quackity waving up at him with another rock in his hand. They were both pretty underdressed considering the fact that there was a potential war brewing. Well, Fundy was anyways; Quackity usually didn't have stuff anyways.

Tommy threw the rock back down, Quackity dodging right before it hit him. "Go away, not sure if you'd noticed but I'm trying to take a nap up here."

"Sorry man, but we noticed that Dream finally left and we wanted to talk with you alone,", Quackity said, dropping his rock to the side.

Tommy adjusted so that he was laying on his stomach at the top of the wall, arms folded on the edge as he looked down at them. "Yeah? And what's so secret you couldn't talk about it around Dream?"

"Is he blackmailing you or something?"

"... What?"

Fundy scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Told you that's not what's going on."

"He didn't even answer, shut the fuck up,", Quackity smacked Fundy's arm before looking back up at Tommy, "Something happened, right? You two used to fucking hate eachother! After all the fucked up shit he's done, there's no way you're just... working with him. Look, whatever he's got on you; we can help!"

Tommy rolled his eyes. "He doesn't have something held over my head. And what kind of ' _help_ ' would you be able to give me, eh? Try to kill me again? Maybe shove me in a cage and call me a fucking traitor?"

"No- Tommy, we're your _friends_!"

"You were, before you realized you couldn't just use me."

"That's not true! Listen man, Dream's just trying to get in your head. Whatever he's been telling you-"

"That's just it, it's not anything he's told me!", Tommy shouted down at them sitting up and hanging his legs over the edge of the wall, "It's things I've seen. All this shit over the last month. After all of that, you honestly expect me to just sit go back and let you all keep treating me like some corkboard for you to pin blame on when something happens?", he sarcastically waived his hand, "Want me to just sit there and take it, because obviously the _child_ is the one that's at fault when something goes wrong? Even when I've got nothing to do with it?" 

Quackity looked up at him in surprise, feeling almost guilty. "That's- no that's not it. How long have you felt like that?"

Tommy crossed his arms, letting out a hurt laugh. "Do you _actually_ care, or are you still just trying to get me to switch sides here?"

"Why wouldn't we care-"

"None of you, ever checked in on me before. None of you care, you just care about saving your own asses. But you can't get out of this."

Fundy growled, snapping up at him. "Stop acting like a kid! This isn't just about you!"

"Fundy-", Quackity tried to calm him down, going completely ignored.

"You can't just side with that fucking psychopath just because you're upset with us!"

"I hate to break it to you, you fucking furry, but I am a kid,", Tommy said, standing, "It's not just about me, it's about all the things you've been doing to cause issues. I could care less about whatever rules you've broken that made Dream pissy, you went after my family-"

" _Family_ that literally told you to die, Tommy! Are you seriously going to say that that warrants the country being completely destroyed?!"

"That's just the nuclear option here, if you give that much of a shit over whether or not it's blown up then choose one of the other things; it's really not that hard."

Fundy's tail bristled as he growled behind his words. "All of the ' _options_ ' you gave us are completely unreasonable, and you aren't even open for compromise-"

"I'll stop you right fucking there, cause you haven't tried to compromise. If you wanted to try adding in your own demands here, you could have brought it up at the meeting."

"That's kinda hard to do when _Dream_ is right there,", Quackity added, sounding a bit less sure of himself than Fundy did.

"That sounds like your problem then, really; communication skills are a bit shit,", Tommy turned away from them, walking closer to the edge leading back inside the wall, "If you have something you want to change about your punishment- because that's what it is, you messed up and you've got to pay for it; but if you want a change, bring it up to Dream in a few days."

Quackity took a few steps closer to the wall, raising his voice. "Tommy! Come on man, at least talk to us!"

"I did talk to you, and you refuse to listen."

With that, he climbed down a ladder on the other side of the wall and was out of their sight.

\--------

Fundy looked up at the spot on the wall where Tommy had previously been sitting, a bad taste left in his mouth after the teen had walked off.

Quackity was also looking up there, but he seemed more outwardly angry than the fox. "... Dream is so fucking dead,", he turned back to look at Fundy, his eyes holding the same anger as whenever he talked about Technoblade, "I don't know what he thinks he's doing, but he's crossed a fucking line. I'm gonna fucking kill him."

"Calm down and think a bit about this, alright?", Fundy raised his hands in a calming gesture, "Didn't you notice something a bit... _off_ about that conversation? Something strange?"

Quackity paused, tilting his head a bit in confusion. "No? I mean that ' _corkboard_ ' thing was kinda weird, but otherwise the only thing off about this is him siding with Dream."

Fundy looked back up at the wall. "... Right."

"Why, what'd you notice?"

"It's probably nothing,", Fundy said, shaking his head, "I'm probably just looking at it too much."

Quackity sighed, starting to walk back. "Whatever, man. Let's get back and tell Tubbo what's up so we can figure out what we're gonna do next."

"Yeah- yeah, that's the main issue right now," Fundy turned to follow him, a feeling of unease settling on him.

\--------

Tommy sat down on his couch, feeling a mix of annoyance and anger as he pulled the book out and propped his feet up onto the coffee table.

The book openned on it's own. " _They aren't going to choose an option, they still don't think they did anything wrong._ "

He leaned back and sighed. "Yeah, I'm realizing that. Guess we need to start actually gearing up for this, don't we?"

" _The chameleon has already been doing that._ "

He rolled his eyes. "Fine, let me rephrase; _I_ need to actually get ready to fight with them. Is that better?"

" _Mentally or physically?_ "

"I may be shit at fighting, but I'm leagues better than them,", he said with a bit of a laugh, a frown settling on his face almost immediately after, "I'm still not quite sure this is the best idea, someone might end up dying."

" _While I can say that is a very likely possibility, there **are** ways to minimize the chances of casualties outside of injury._"

"Really? I'd love to hear it."

" _That discussion will happen later as you plan for when you take action._ "

He sat up propperly, setting the book to the side as he took his feet off the table and placed his head in his hands. "This is getting way too fucking complicated,", he turned his head so he could see the book again, "We can't just say ' _nevermind_ ' to this either, can we?"

" _Would you want to, if given the option?_ "

He let out a humorless chuckle. "I'm not even sure anymore. I'd say I regret it again, but I already know what you've got to say to that,", he sighed, "Not like any of us even could go back after this. There's no way they'd trust me after this, and I refuse to just sit there taking their shit at this point."

" _But you've also got to remember that once you've gone through with this, you've got to face what you've done._ "

He groaned, digging the palms of his hands into his eyes. "I know that, believe me. But it'll be far easier to have those conversations once _that_ place is gone."

The book paused for a moment. " _That's considerably mature of you._ "

"Shut up, we were having a serious conversation here."

" _I wasn't mocking you, I was making a statement. You're handling this far more maturely than most would._ "

"Yeah, how mature of me to start _another_ war on this server."

" _It's almost inevitable in these lands, if one doesn't happen sooner it's likely to happen later. You're just ripping off the bandaid._ "

"That bandaid is stuck on a stab wound, then."

" _Then it's useless, and you're doing something good by removing it._ "

Tommy read the words on the page a few times, slowly nodding as he thought about it. "Yeah, I guess." He stood up, stretching. "Well, no point just sitting around if we've got shit to do,", he winced as something popped in his back, "Are they gone?"

" _They left shortly after the confrontation, they're not likely to come back._ "

"And when is Dream getting back?"

" _Some time in the evening, presumaby. The chameleon is slightly harder to track given his status as a main character,_ ", the book wrote after pausing for a moment.

"We can talk about game plans after he's done with Sam- y'know you should really tell me what that's about."

" _Spoilers._ "

"' _Spoilers_ '," he said in a mocking tone, "Y'know one of these time's I'm gonna find a way around that."

" _That would just be more damaging to you than anything else. What are you planning on doing?_ "

He thought for a moment. "Mining, probably, we still need some stuff."

The book sat there for a moment, not saying anything.

"What, something happening?"

" _Not currently. I was checking what could occur while you're out._ "

Tommy let out a hum, grabbing the book as he got ready to leave. "Anything important?"

" _Not for now, everything is subject to change._ "

"Yeah, whatever,", he said, rolling his eyes.

It's surprisinly easy to zone out while mining, something Tommy always forgot until he was alone underground with only the noise of a pickaxe. He managed to just dig in a straight line for a good few hours before being startled by breaking into a cave.

He blinked a few times, looking around at the torches that were already placed inside. He put his pick away for the moment, stretching his hands and trying to ignore how they were cramping from gripping the tool for so long. Sitting down on a random ledge, he pulled the book out and flipped it open.

Before he could even say anything, however, the book wrote out, " _Don't say anything, there's someone nearby._ "

" _Where_?", he whispered, standing back up.

Before the book answered, he heard what sounded like someone hitting their head, followed by a very distinct "ow" that belonged to a certain enderman hybrid.

Tommy quickly put the book away, crossing his arms and walking over to where he'd heard the other boy.

Ranboo was standing in the tunnel Tommy had just dug out, hand to the back of his head as he was stood there awkwardly bent over so he could fit. The enderman hybrid looked up at him. "Oh uh- _hi_?"

"Why the fuck were you following me?"

"Me? No, I wasn't- I mean, I didn't really mean to-,", he cut himself off sighing, "I wanted to talk to you."

"You could have messaged me."

"I have been, you didn't read any of them."

Tommy raised an eyebrow at him, lifting his arm to check his comm unit. "Ah, guess I never actually took it off of silent,", he said, changing his settings as he spoke.

"So can we uh... move into the cave to talk? I'm a bit too tall for this,", Ranboo said, trying to gesture to the cramped walls of the tunnel but just banging his elbows on them.

Tommy silently moved to the side so the enderman hybrid could get past, watching as the other boy stood at his full height and stretched.

"Thanks, it was cramped in there."

"... Why did you follow me?"

"Like I said, I wanted to talk to you,", Ranboo paused for a moment, looking awkward, "Are you alright?"

Tommy felt almost offended. "Yeah? Why wouldn't I be?"

"With everything that's going on... Plus you were crying last time I saw you."

"I was not!", Tommy glared at him, "Maybe you're projecting; you been crying, Ranboob?"

"I mean yeah but this isn't about me."

"... oh."

Ranboo laughed, awkwardly gripping at his tail. "No, but seriously, you're doing alright?"

"Yup, all good here, you can leave now."

Ranboo accidentally made eye contact with him for a moment before speaking, looking mildly uncomfortable. "Actually, would you mind if I mined with you for a while? I could probably stand to get some more materials."

Tommy thought for a moment, squinting at him. "Won't the ' _lovely_ ' people of L'Manberg notice you're gone? Surely if you've been following me for...", Tommy checked the time on his comm, " _Three hours_ , they've noticed you're missing."

Ranboo shook his head. "Probably not? They're getting ready for the festival so-"

"Festival?", Tommy interupted him, surprise on his face.

"Y-yeah? It's on the fifth, I think?"

Tommy brought a hand to his chin, thinking. "Who's invited?"

"Everyone, I think? Well, probably not Techno or Phil, since they're wanted criminals there... but they even planned on inviting Dream, I think?", Ranboo answered, hesitantly.

"Right...", Tommy nodded, processing what he'd been told, "Y'know what, yeah; you can go mining with me. Just don't expect me to slow down if you can't keep up."

"It's- it's not a race. But cool! We haven't really hung out since the whole ' _robbery_ ' thing."

"Yeah, we haven't have we? What's been up with you?"

They dug out two tunnels side by side, Tommy going significantly faster than before just to prove he was better.

They talked about how things had develouped on both sides of the current conflict, Tommy trying to ignore how sad he felt hearing about the country he used to care about. But it was nice, all things considered; not to mention the fact that he was also getting some pretty useful information.

By the time they got back to the stairs leading out of his mine, Ranboo was entirely out of breath.

"What, couldn't keep up, big man?", Tommy asked, laughing.

Ranboo was hunched over with his hands on his knees, wheezing slightly. "How are you not tired? That was _at least_ 300 blocks!"

Tommy shrugged, starting up the stairs. "I'm just built different, maybe you should try getting good."

"Ew, what is this, 2012? Who says ' _get good_ ' anymore?"

"I do, bitch; deal with it."

Ranboo stood up as much as he could with the now lower ceilings, following Tommy back to the surface. "I am literally begging you to stop."

"What, problem?", Tommy was holding back laughter as he spoke.

"Well, I can't complete step three since the rain causes me immense amounts of pain."

"You're just a pussy, the oil will keep the rain off anyways."

Coming back to his house, Tommy was almost dissapointed to see that Dream hadn't returned yet. He turned to look at Ranboo once they got to the small gate in the wall, the enderman awkwardly shifting his weight between his feet.

"Uh, so... I guess I'll see you later?", Ranboo asked, smiling slightly.

"Yeah, see you later,", Tommy said, hesiating for a moment before adding, "Please don't tell anyone from L'Manberg you hung out with me, today; it'll probably just cause you problems."

"No, yeah, of course. I probably wouldn't remember alot of what we talked about if they ask, anyways."

"Wow, how very pog-champ of you to just forget the things we talked about," Tommy said sarcastically.

"It's not on purpose I-"

"I was joking, Ranboo. Stay safe, man."

Ranboo looked at him for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, you too,", he paused for a second, "That was surprisingly earnest, I'm gonna go before it starts getting dark."

"Careful, you might get shot in the ass by a skeleton."

"Oh no, that'd hurt."

There was some awkward silence for a moment.

"... Well, bye."

"Bye."

Ranboo enderpearled away, leaving Tommy there in silence before he went inside.

Dream got back not long after, knocking before he entered the house and plopped down on the couch next to Tommy. The boy was writing something down, making a noise of aknowledgment at the man's arrival.

"Hey, I ran into Ranboo on the way here,", Dream said as he unclipped his mask.

"Yeah, we mined together for a while,", Tommy said, looking up from what he'd been doing, "Gave me some useful information. The furry and Quackity also showed up earlier."

"What'd they want?"

Tommy scoffed, rolling his eyes. "They thought you were blackmailing me or something, it was pretty fucking stupid."

"Yikes, that sounds annoying."

"It was, honestly, but it worked out in the end. If they hadn't cut my nap short I wouldn't have gone mining,", he turned what he'd been writing down around so Dream could read it, flipping to the first page of it, "Here, I've been writing down everything Ranboo told me about earlier."

Dream grabbed it from him. "This makes sense, honestly, they were running around alot while I was there,", he said after a few minutes.

Tommy nodded. "The book said they're not even considering any of the options we gave them, I'm thinking we do something with this."

"Yeah, me too. Ranboo said they're inviting me to it?"

"He said they _might_ , probably planning to stab you or something; pull you into a dark alleyway at some point past nine p.m. GMT."

"I mean, they can try,", Dream laughed as he handed the list back to Tommy.

Tommy got right back to writting, yawning. "I've come up with a few plans I wanted to go over with you, if you're up for it tonight. I haven't run it by the book yet either; just been coming up with shit as I keep track of the details."

"Are you sure _you're_ up for it? You look exhausted."

"I took a nap for a while after you left, it's fine."

"Yeah, but you also went mining, that takes alot of energy."

Tommy looked up at him, waiving his hand dismissively. "And this doesn't, I can get some sleep after we go over this. The longer we wait, the less time we have to prepare."

Dream sighed, running a hand through his hair. "True, just don't pass out in the middle of a sentence."

"Screw off, man, I'm actually trying to be responsible here!"

"Sorry, sorry. You've been doing great, I'm just teasing you. Honestly, they were sleeping on your talents; it's only been a little while and you said you came up with multiple plans already."

"Well, I came up with like two of them while Ranboo was still telling me stuff,", Tommy said, slightly embarrassed with a hand on his neck.

" _Still_! That's so useful! You know how many people wish they could come up with ideas that fast?"

"A-alright, whatever; can I actually tell you what I've got here or are you just gonna make fun of me?"

"There's a difference between making fun of you and praise."

"I don't care, shut up so I can talk."

"Yeah, go ahead."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok ok ok so not as long as i like having chapters, but consider it the calm before the storm  
> (also cheers if you get the stupid joke i added to the like second to last chapter, step 2 cover yourself in oil is either really funny or my sense of humor is very scuffed)  
> :)
> 
> Also, a few chapters ago I mentioned a feral raccooninnit story I was writing; well I finally finsihed it! 
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/29914629
> 
> ~-~-~  
> gib comment, comment good food


End file.
